Agent Florida's Story
by Agent Florida
Summary: My stories. Visit Agent Florida's Facebook Page to check out the stories first!    Chapter 6 will be going up on the Facebook page sometime soon, go there to check it out early!
1. Prequel: Operation Recovery 001

Prequel: Operation Recovery 001:

**Part 1:**

I was given a mission from the Director to investigate what had happened at Valhalla.

I figure the Director knows what or has something to do with what happened at Valhalla, but I think this is a test mission that other rookie Freelancer's probably had to go through at one point.

When I arrived, I expected Reds and Blues to be battling for their Useless reasons, for they are only simulations for us.

The Covenant was there.

I could see it all, Jackals in the trees, just waiting for a kill. Elites roaming the river area, Grunts inside the bases, looking for something to snack on, and the Brutes. The Brutes were scouting around the whole area. They were the hardest to sneak by. I was wondering why the Director would give out such a mission.

Then I realized. He probably thought that there would only be Reds and Blues like I did.

I was at the red base. I could see the pelican from the platform. Of course, I killed a few grunts to get up there, but it was no biggy.

Then the brutes came.

Two Brutes, both Majors, one with a turret and the other with a gravity hammer.

I only had an Assault Rifle and a Magnum. Luckily, there was a missile pod on the platform, but it was behind the brutes.

I had to get behind them.

The brutes charged towards me and tried to kill me with their Covenant weapons. I was able to swiftly dodge them. I got in between them and picked up the missile pod. I shot them with the missile pod and it ended up hurting me a little as well.

I carried the missile pod and got on the gravity lift.

**Part 2:**

I landed near the river. Elites. I could still see the Pelican and was ready to investigate, but these Elites weren't ready to let me.

The elites turned around quickly. Each was holding a different weapon.

Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, Beam Rifle, Carbine, and of course, Energy Sword.

They all shot at me at the same time. I shot my rocket pod back at them and killed three of them. I was out of ammo.

I pulled out my Assault Rifle and the Energy Sword elite charged at me. I grabbed the sword with my hand, which hurt badly, but I pulled the sword away from him, grabbed it in the correct place, and stabbed him with it. I jumped over the carbine elite and stabbed him in the back with the Energy sword. I picked up the Carbine and shot at the Jackal Snipers. I watched them fall to the ground. I was headed for the Pelican.

An ODST.

The ODST asked me to leave the area. I had asked him why he was there, and he said his job was to protect the Pelican from "people like me." I asked him how he was still surviving, and sure enough, he had joined up with the Covenant. He saw everything I did there, with the stabbing and the Missiles, and the sniping. Everything. I pulled out my Energy sword again to try and prove to him that I am also joined up with the Covenant, but he knew that I was a Freelancer. Unfortunately for me, his weapon was a shotgun. He lifted up his shotgun and shot but I jumped over the bullet. I then stabbed him with the Energy sword, which did almost nothing. I pulled out my Assault rifle and shot at him from behind. He ran up to me and hit me with his shotgun, pushing me over. I pulled out my Sword again and stabbed the ground for support. I shot him with my assault rifle some more and he wasn't getting hurt at all.

The ODST hadn't taken any damage from any of my weapons. I did the only thing I could. Stand there and do nothing, hoping some reinforcements would come or some Elite would jump off the cliff and stab the ODST. Something did happen. Reinforcements.

For the ODST.

Pelican's dropped off Warthogs and marines were coming out all pointing their Assault Rifles at me. They were quietly speaking to each other. I knew where they were from.

Outpost- 4598, "High Noon."

They kept my armor at High Noon. I had secretly escaped with my armor around a month or two ago.

They were back for me. They didn't want me back for the Freelancers. I heard them mention "Director." For some reason, I believe the Director turned me in. Probably had something to do with Tex.

Agent Texas...

All I could do was surrender to the Marines. I had a plan though. I wasn't just gonna let them take me.

Not without a bang.

**Part 3:**

They forced me to leave. They carried me into a Pelican and flew off. That ODST was still down there. I needed to figure out how that armor was so strong that even my rockets weren't doing anything. I had a plan to escape the Marines, but the plan didn't include Marines having rocket launchers. I just decided to follow orders and see where things went from there. I still had the slightest feeling that this had something to do with the Director.

We arrived at a POW camp. I was a Prisoner of War. They walked me in, tied my foot to a poll, and gave me a pickaxe. They told me to go mine in the indoor mining area. I had no idea why their mining area would be indoors, but I didn't say anything. I kept on mining for three hours straight. It wasn't much, but it was over a hundred degrees in there, and my armor made me feel even hotter. During that time, I met a guy named Slash. He had been a prisoner for over three years and he had a big scar running down the side of his head. After the three hours, some guards told me to throw my pickaxe on the ground and follow them, and I did. We arrived at an empty glass tube. The guards told me to take my armor off. I asked them why, and they replied, "Just do it," so I refused. They kept ordering me for around five minutes until one guard left the room. The other guard continued to order me for about two minutes until the guard came back with a shotgun. He told me to take off my armor or he would shoot.

I forgot about a little something I had in my suit. They told me to drop my guns, but they never said anything about Grenades.

**Part 4:**

I pulled out a grenade. The Marines ran off, dropping there weapons. I picked up there weapons and started to walk away. A red light started flashing, followed by an alarm. I ran down the long grey hallway until I reached the cells. I grabbed the keys and opened up all of the cages. The prisoners ran out quickly. I stopped Slash and gave him a magnum. Slash stopped the prisoners and told them to let us go first. We got ahead of them and ran toward the main Armor room. My armor room was kept in a special room since I was a Freelancer. There were four marines guarding the main armor room. What I was surprised by was, "Why aren't they sending any more guards on us." The Marines pulled out their Assault Rifles and screeched some high pitch sound. I don't know what the sound was, but it must have been a code that let other marines know to come out. We were surrounded. There weren't that many of us either, only around twenty, counting Slash and I.

The Marines told us to drop our weapons, but we didn't. I walked closer to a Marine with the shotgun and the Marine threatened to shoot me. I grabbed the Marines Assault Rifle and pulled it out of his hand. The Marines started to shoot at me and I threw the Assault Rifle in the medium sized crowd of prisoners. A prisoner named Hatch caught it and started to fire at the Marines. Slash was firing his pistol at the Marines and I ran up to Marines and shot them with the shotgun. The other prisoners started to beat up the Marines and steal their weapons. They all started shooting. We lost about two guys and killed all of the Marines. Slash and I ran down to the armor room and the prisoners picked up different Marine armor pieces such as the helmet and the chest piece. When we arrived at the Armor room, I was amazed by how many different armors there were in there. There were ones from the Default Armor to the Mark VI Armor. There were over a thousand different customizations in here! We walked down the room for around three minutes until we finally arrived at Slash's armor tube. His armor was Scout helmet, Sniper Shoulders, Multi-Threat Armor, Tactical Hard Case, Gold Visor, and the rest was default. The suit was green with a red secondary color. I tried to open up the tube, but it needed a code. I tried many different codes and none of them seemed to work. Hatch was an excellent hacker, so I let him do his job and sent five guys to guard the main entrance. We didn't seem to have any Marines come over. We finally hacked the device and opened up the tube. We gave Slash time to put on his armor and we ran back to the indoor mining area. Nobody was there either. I figured something was up, but I didn't know what. We picked up all the pickaxes and ran back to the cells. We had two guys on guard duty while everyone else tried to dig us a way out. It took us about an hour, but we finally got a path out. We climbed out of the hole and looked up. The sky. The clear blue sky. Slash started to cry. He had been there for three years and was now finally out. We looked back down.

"Freeze!"

I finally figured out where all those Marines went. They knew our plan. It was a trap.

**Part 5:**

They knew our plan. It was a trap.

"Everyone. Get ready to aim. Fire!" I shouted this to all of the prisoners. They all fired as told. The Marines fired back with their battle rifles. Slash had stolen an equipment from the armor room that used to belong to a Marine Super-Soldier. It wasn't allowed in battle anymore, but Slash was about to use it. Slash started to power up. He told me to cover him. A sniper was on the rooftop, about to shoot at Slash. I threw a plasma and just barley missed. I tried to block Slash. Slash told me that he was ready and I jumped on top of him. He stopped charging and ran at an extreme speed up the wall, while I was still holding on. I threw a few grenades down at the Marines. When Slash finally got up, I hopped off of Slash and rolled into the sniper. Slash grabbed the sniper's back when he fell and cracked his neck. Slash picked up the sniper rifle and started to snipe the pilots of the Hornets and Falcons. I saw something the Marine had brought up with him. A transmitter. I looked up and saw the Frigate getting ready to fire at the transmitter. I picked up the transmitter and threw it at the Marines. The Frigate fired down on the Marines and only a few were remaining. Slash sniped the rest of them and I jumped back down to the prisoners. Five more snipers came out of the rooftops around us and started to snipe the prisoners. I told the prisoners to pick up some Battle Rifles from the Marines. They did and started shooting at the snipers. Slash sniped one and did a backflip to keep one from coming up to his rooftop. He then sniped the sniper and stayed on watch. We killed the rest of the snipers and two Warthogs came up, one Machine Gun and the other one a Guass. They both started to fire at us and Slash threw me the equipment. Slash kept sniping incoming Falcons and Hornets and I put on the equipment. The prisoners shot at the Warthogs and I charged up the equipment. The prisoners made a big circle around me and I told one to get on my back.

"Ready."

I stopped charging and I ran at an extreme speed toward the Guass hog. Once I hit the Guass hog, the prisoner jumped off and landed on the Machine Gun turret of the other Warthog. I had sent the Guass hog flying into a building and then Slash sniped it a few times until it exploded. I saw a pelican coming in. I told everyone to hold their fire. When the back of the Pelican opened, a familiar looking ODST came out.

And he spoke. He said to me, "Remember me?"

It was him from Valhalla. I made a fist and pointed at the ODST and everyone started to fire at him. He had brought a flamethrower. He tried to burn me with the flamethrower but I jumped over the flames. I slid toward him and punched his stomach which had no effect on him. I finally knew what to do. I backflipped into the crowd of alive prisoners and told them to cover me. Slash was gone. The pelican was lifting off. Slash came back out with a Missile Pod and shot at the Pelican. The Pelican started to crash. It crashed into a few buildings and exploded. I told the prisoners to watch out and stopped charging. They got out of the way. I ran at an extreme speed toward the ODST. He was stronger than I thought. He was able to hold off my speed. So I backflipped again, but I had saved a little energy. I ran at an extreme speed again but this time instead of bumping into him, I punched his glass. Glass shards went everywhere. Slash threw the Missile Pod at the ODST, pushing him back a little. I grabbed the Missile Pod, aimed for the ODST's face, and shot. I had finally killed him. Only five prisoners were left, not counting me or Slash. We ran toward the prison garage and I shot the door with the Missile Pod. We jumped through the hole and there were two warthogs there. That would leave one person. I told all the prisoners to get in the Warthogs. Slash got in the side. I told them to wait an hour and protect me, because I was going to charge up my equipment so I could run with them.

One Hour.

**Part 6:**

One Hour Later

I was charged up as much as I needed to be. I would run as fast as the Warthogs, and I could smash into incoming enemies. I was glad I was running instead of sitting in a Warthog.

"Go!"

The Warthogs drove at full speed and I ran with them. Three Hornets were behind us. The turrets fired at the Hornets. Three Super ODST's jumped off of the Hornet and landed on a truck behind us. One had a sniper rifle, the other a shotgun, and another brought down a machine gun turret. The Shotgun one jumped on a Warthog. I started to slow down and got behind the truck. I ran fast into the truck which pushed it off the bridge we were on. The turret fell with it, but everyone was fine. One ODST now had no weapon. He jumped on Slash's Warthog and started to punch the driver. Slash got on top of the Warthog and kicked the ODST off. The Sniper ODST sniped the driver and killed him which made the Warthog lose control. Slash grabbed the prisoners body and threw it at the ODST, pushing him a little. Slash hopped into the driver seat and started to shoot his magnum behind him. One Hornet was down. I jumped onto another Hornet and broke open the cockpit. I threw a sticky at the pilot which killed him and exploded the Hornet. I started running again. The Sniper was running across the edge of the bridge, which was pretty high up. He was sniping the prisoner Warthog, but he kept missing. The Shotgun ODST jumped on Slash's Warthog and kicked the turret guy out. The turret guy was dead. Slash shot the shotgun ODST and punched him in the crotch. The ODST fell off and landed on me. He started to shoot me with his shotgun. I told the turret guy to shoot at him and he did. The Marine threw a grenade in the Warthog. The prisoner in the side threw it backwards, which made a civilian car lose control. I jumped up and turned upside down. I continued to fall. The ODST was still on me. I turned onto my back and hit the ground, killing the ODST. I was hurt though. I crawled into the side of Slash's Warthog and shot at the sniper ODST with a Battle Rifle. I pushed him off the bridge and all three super ODST's were down. Slash kept driving at full speed.

"Bail!"Slash and I jumped out of the Warthog and landed on the back of a truck. The Warthog crashed into the truck which pushed it a little. Slash and I started to fire at the last Hornet. The Hornet started to fire back. It shot missiles at the back of the truck. It pushed the truck and now the truck was on fire. I climbed to the top of the truck and Slash threw me the Sniper Rifle. I saw an ODST Warthog come up. I only had one bullet for the Sniper. I waited for a while and shot the pilot of the Hornet. The Hornet fell down and hit the Warthog, blowing up both. The prisoner Warthog drove up next to us. I threw the Sniper Rifle back to Slash. He pulled out his Magnum and aimed behind us. I pulled out a Shotgun and opened up the passenger seat of the truck. The man inside screamed and I kicked him out of the truck. He landed on the bridge safely and I got in the driver seat. Slash hung over the passenger seat and took my Battle Rifle. A Scorpion was waiting on the end of the bridge. Slash took my equipment and ran over to the Scorpion. He shot the driver and got into it. He shot at some incoming Hornets. A Pelican was coming in. It landed near the Scorpion and Agent California hopped out. He saw my truck coming up. I got to the Pelican and hopped out of the truck. I asked California if I could bring the prisoners and Slash along for now and he said alright. We all hopped into the Pelican and flew off. Back to the Mother of Invention.


	2. Chapter 1: Operation Georgia

Chapter 1: Operation: Georgia

**Part 1:**

I escaped.

I was brought into the board room. Slash was there with me. When we walked in, the Director was on one side of the table. On the other side were two chairs. We sat down and looked at the Director.

"How could you get captured on an easy mission like that?"

"Sir. There was this ODST. He was too powerful for me. They came with rockets and snipers. I couldn't fight them all off. I didn't know where they were going to take me. But I escaped."

"I know you escaped. You wouldn't be sitting here otherwise. I just wanted to know why you didn't fight them off." He stood up and started to pace around the table. "And who's this?"

"That's someone I met at the prison. Slash, is his name."

"Slash. You seemed like a pretty good soldier."

"Wait. How did you see me?"

"That's none of your business."

"And how did you find me?" I asked.

"That's none of your business either. You seem like a good soldier. How would you like to be part of the Freelancer program?"

"But we already have all the states! We could split Carolina into two separate Carolinas, but I'm sure she won't like that."

"Carolina's dead! She's been dead! We might not of told you, but she took two A.I. programs! And you know what happened to her? She went crazy, and got herself killed! Sorry… she was one of our best Freelancer's at the time."

"Well then give Carolina's place to him."

"Can't do that. People will think that she's back. We could use a territory. Like Guam."

"How about he's just… Slash. He doesn't have to be a Freelancer. Like the Recovery Soldiers. They don't have state names."

"Fine. Welcome to the team Slash. You two may leave now."

We walked out of the room. We started to slowly walk down a hallway. It was silent. Neither of us said a word. Until Slash asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to.

"What ever happened to you? You know? You said something happened to you then you were 'Recovered.' What happened to you?"

I stopped. He stopped as well. I didn't know what to say. It stumped me. I had never asked that question to anyone.

"I don't know. I've heard two different stories, but I'm not sure which one is true. One story was that I died in a battle. Another was that the actual state of Florida was destroyed, and without a Florida, there can't be an Agent Florida."

"Sounds weird. I don't know which one to believe."

I started to think it over. I thought that the second one was correct. For some reason, I just had the feeling that something happened to the state of Florida. I was onto something until…

"Agent Florida and Slash. We need you to in the Hangar ASAP."

We ran down to the Hangar to see a Pelican ready to lift off.

"This Pelican's going to Georgia. There's something you need to do there. These soldiers will fill you in along the way. Get in."

We hopped in the Pelican. Georgia. I heard that Florida was near Georgia. This was the time to investigate. What happened to Florida?

**Part 2:**

We had no troubles getting down to Georgia. We landed at about 7:30 at night. I was informed that this was to be a secret mission. A night mission. There was a Central Tower that had a lot of Prototype weapons that we wanted. We arrived earlier than we expected, so we just sat around for a few hours.

It was 1:30 in the morning. Slash, two Freelancer Soldiers and I were at the front door of the building.

"We gonna bust our way in?"

"Relax. This is a secret mission. We're going in quiet. We have to climb up to the roof. Here." I pulled out four ropes with harpoons attached to the end of them. I gave them to everyone. "Just throw the Harpoon end up to the roof."

"You kidding me? That's too high!" complained one of the soldiers. "We'll never get it up there!"

"Hey. How bout we get a Hornet to bring these up?"

"Fair enough." A Hornet brought the Harpoon ends up to the roof. We climbed up on top of the roof without anyone noticing. "Good. From here on out, everyone's quiet. You here me?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good." I looked under the crack of a door on the roof. It was all clear. I opened the door quietly and signaled everyone to follow me in. We walked down the stairs and we had two options, a door, or more stairs. I looked at the map of the building I was given. The package was three floors down. We walked down three more flights of stairs quietly. There was another door, and more stairs. I checked under the crack of the stairs. Nothing but an empty hallway. I quietly opened the door up. We walked in silently."Freeze!"

They found us. We stood there. We turned around and there were two Marines behind us. They were on the walls near the door, so I wasn't able to see them through the crack.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're on Guard Duty now."

"Yeah right, Freelancer."

"You know?""Of course I do. We're taking you in."

I pulled up my magnum and aimed at the Marine who was talking. They aimed their guns at me. Slash and the soldiers aimed their magnums up as well. We fired, killing the two Marines.

"So much for going in silent."

**Part 3:**

The alarm blared. We ran down a long hallway, expecting Marines to come charging out. And they did that exactly. Four Marines with shotguns ran up. We all started shooting at them as soon as we saw them. We heard one say, "We've got Florida."

A tank shot come through the hallway, leaving a huge hole. We jumped over and grabbed onto the edge, then we climbed up. Outside, surrounding the building were a ton of Marines. Our Hornet was outside firing at some Marines. The Scorpion was trying to fire back at the Hornet. "Let's hurry. Forget about them." We kept running down the hallway. We reached a dead end. There were four doors. The back two busted open and two Super ODST's came out of them. They both had machine gun turrets. A knocked over a bookcase and we all used it as cover. We all started to blind fire with our magnums. We could hear footsteps. They were coming over. We heard more people. Marines were coming upstairs. We aimed our magnums at the door. The Marines walked in and we fired at them. An ODST mounted his turret on the bookcase and he aimed down at us. He started to fire. We rolled out of the way and fired our magnums at the two ODST's. I ran up to the back one and punched him in the gut. I backflipped and kicked the other ODST's back in the air. I fired at the back ODST and punched him in the face. Slash pulled out a sniper rifle and fired at the front ODST's head, but the ODST moved his head in time. The bullet still managed to hit his arm. He dropped the turret down. He ran up to Slash and punched him. Slash almost fell off the building, but he was hanging on the edge. I fired my magnum at the ODST that hit him and kicked the back ODST. I disarmed the ODST and shot the turret at him. I then threw the turret at the other ODST. They were both dead. I ran over to Slash and pulled him up. The other soldiers fired at the Marines while I got Slash back up. Once back up, Slash started to snipe some Marines. The Scorpion fired and made the hole bigger. We ran back over to the edge of the hallway.

"Which way leads to the package?"

I checked my map. The door on the right lead to the package. I kicked a dent into the door. I kept kicking until the door opened up. Nobody was there. I could see the weapons on a few tables. I guess the ODST's were the guards. We walked in and looked at the table.

"These weapons. They're amazing."

**Part 4:**

The package included these weapons: The Fuel Rod Gun, The Spartan Laser, The SMG, The Mauler, The Carbine, The Brute Plasma Rifle, and finally, The Evolved Magnum.

I took the SMG and the Spartan Laser. Slash got The Evolved Magnum and his Sniper Rifle. One soldier got The Brute Plasma Rifle and The Mauler. The other got The Carbine and The Fuel Rod Gun. There was one more part to the package. It was in the garage. We walked back out of the room and looked at the big hole. We weren't able to jump over without losing some weapons, so we went into the door across from the door we went into. There were a flight of stairs that went down. We slowly walked down, ready for an incoming attack. The alarm was still blaring, but nobody was coming. At least, not yet.

We walked all the way down to the garage door. We were very surprised that there weren't any more Marines. I thought it may be another trap. I opened the door slowly, and nothing. Only the vehicle.

The vehicle was the Elephant. A mobile base. We weren't able to take this and make a quick getaway, so we would need some help. Eventually. I opened up the garage, still expecting Marines. Nobody was there. Not even the tank. I thought that the Hornet might have done the job. I stayed on the bottom floor of the Elephant. Slash drove and the two soldiers were on the turrets, only one was detachable, but he didn't detach it. We slowly took off.

We had been driving for over an hour. We arrived at a large landing pad, big enough for the Mother of Invention to land down and pick up the package. I called in the ship. I knew what the Marines were up to at that point. They were waiting for us to call in for a pickup. Right after the call ended, the Scorpion was back. Two Hornets also came in. One soldier detached his turret and fired at the Hornet, while the other aimed at the Scorpion and fired at it. I put the SMG on my side. The Scorpion shot at the Marine. I put the Spartan Laser on my back and ran to the Marine to grab the weapons. I grabbed both weapons and put the Mauler on my side and switched the Plasma Rifle for the Spartan Laser. While I was falling, I charged up the Laser. I fired at the Scorpion, which caused a large explosion. I pulled out the SMG and got back onto the Elephant. Slash was already on the lower level. One Hornet was down. Two Warthogs pulled up. Slash ran outside and fired the magnum at the drivers. He was able to kill a Marine in just one shot. I pulled out my Spartan Laser and started to fire at an incoming enemy Pelican. The Pelican was starting to crash. Slash was on a Guass turret firing at incoming Falcons and Hornets. I started to drive the Elephant out of the way of the crashing Pelican. The Pelican crashed into the street, pushing Slash back into a building. The Pelican exploded, which ended up flipping the Elephant over. It was about to fall off.

"Wait? What? How did you do that?"

I ran up to the crashed Pelican and searched the inside. Nothing. The Mother of Invention was coming in. This had to be quick. A Pelican came down and crashed into the Elephant. The Elephant took major damage. I fired at the Pilot and incoming Marines. The Mother of Invention landed and picked up the Package. We stayed behind. The Mother of Invention safely left the area, back into space.

This mission was done. But I had something else to do. It didn't involve Florida yet, but this mission is pretty important.

The next mission was about to start.

**Part 5:**

This mission was a little harder. We had to sneak into A. . Articficial Intelligence Incorporated. We were supposed to steal their new prototype A.I, the Delta 2.0. They didn't release a real name for it yet, but stated it would be "something like Delta, but better." The building is heavily guarded. According to the Director, the guards guard every sneaky entrance. We had to go in loud.

When the Mother of Invention landed to pick up The Package, it also dropped us off a Warthog. A normal Machine Gun turret Warthog. I got in the turret, Slash got in the side and the remaining soldier drove. We drove toward the objective but we ran into a few Hornets. I fired at one Hornet while Slash sniped the pilot of the other. Both came crashing down and our Warthog had to swerve out of the way of both Hornets. We kept driving until we finally got to the building. There was nobody there. I knew that they had to be on the inside. There was a Holographic Lock on the front door. I tried to unlock it, but it set off an alarm. We pulled up our guns and I kicked the door open. The door flew through the room and actually hit a Marine. Two Marines that were on both sides of the door ran out with Assault Rifles. I fired my SMG at both of them and they were killed. We ran inside and fired at all the Marines. I opened up the elevator and we walked in. I shot the Marine in the elevator and grabbed his body. When the elevator opened, I threw the Marines body at another Marine. Slash fired his Evolved Magnum at the Marines in the hallway. We ran down the hallway, firing at Marines. Someone had turned on the Emergency Doors. Steel doors started to close down behind us. We were jumping over obstacles and running as fast as we could. The soldier tripped on a book and got trapped behind. Slash and I kept running. I pulled out my Spartan Laser and aimed at the door we were heading for. I fired and we rolled sideways into it. We shot all the Marines inside and walked up to the clear tube that held Delta 2.0. I pressed the button to open the tube, but it didn't open. It set off an alarm instead. Somebody came through the door. It was an ODST. He had a flamethrower.

"But.. How..."

It was the ODST that got me captured. I thought he was dead. How could he still be alive?

The ODST fired.

**Part 6:**

The ODST fired.

I jumped right over the flame and fired the SMG at him. I landed and slid over behind a table. Slash started to try and snipe the ODST. He started to walk over to my table. He turned and stared at me. I fired and I backflipped. While in the air, I charged up the Spartan Laser. When I landed, I fired the Spartan Laser at the ODST. He flew back to the window. He fell out the window. I took Delta 2.0 and jumped out. Slash stayed. He tried to snipe the ODST while I was fighting him up close. I punched the ODST a few times then jumped on his head. He hit me with his flamethrower and fired at me. He got hit in the arm by Slash. He dropped his flamethrower on the ground. I ran up and kicked him in the gut, which didn't do much. I then picked up his flamethrower. It was heavy. I hardly could carry it. I fired at the ODST. He ran away from the flame and threw a stick grenade at me. I dropped the flamethrower and was pushed back to the outside of the building. The ODST was hit in the arm again by Slash. I ran up to the ODST and kicked him in the gut again. I punched him in the face twice then kicked him in the gut again. He got pushed back a little, but not much. I backflipped and pulled out my Spartan Laser. I charged it up. The ODST ran up to me as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast because of how heavy his armor was.

Please, don't hit me yet...

Just a little longer...

I fired my final Spartan Laser shot. I put it on my back. The ODST was on the ground. I walked over to his body. I had finally killed him. He was dead this time. I put my hand on his chest piece to make sure he was dead.

He was alive.

He grabbed my arm and threw me backwards. I was on the ground. He got up and walked over to me. He picked me up by the neck and was choking me. I was sure I was going to die. Slash jumped out the window and pulled out his Evolved Magnum. He unloaded a whole clip into the ODST and the ODST fell over.

"I'm gonna see if he's dead."

"No. Don't." I was sure that it was going to be another trap.

"Why not? He's gotta be dead. This baby can kill a Spartan in four shots. I unloaded a whole clip into him!"

"Yeah well one Spartan Laser blast kills a Spartan, and I shot him twice. He's still alive even after that."

"I'm going."

"Stop."

"Fine." He finally stopped. The ODST got back up.

"Heh heh heh. You're a smart one Florida. I'll leave. If, you give me the A.I."

"I'm sorry. But I can't do that." I punched his gut and kicked him so hard he fell over. I pulled out my Spartan Laser and tried to charge. "I think I'm out."

"Great."

I threw my Spartan Laser as hard as I could at the ODST. I then walked over to him and stepped on his mask. I pulled his helmet off, and Slash sniped his head. He was definatly dead now. Finally.

"How?"

"What?"

"How did he come back to life?"

"I don't know, Florida. We'll figure it out sooner or later. I can feel it."

"Let's roll out."

**Part 7:**

I drove. Slash was in the turret. I took off as fast as I could. We had to get to the extraction point. It wasn't the same one as where we delivered the Package.

An enemy Pelican flew above us. It flew ahead of us and dropped off snipers on a nearby building. They fired at us. I swerved out of the way while Slash shot back at the snipers. We killed them. Slash fired at the escaping Pelican. It escaped safely and Slash turned back ahead. In front of us was a Warthog blockade. Behind us was a Mongoose with a Marine on the back. The Marine had a rocket launcher. He fired the rocket launcher. I swerved to the left and the rocket hit the blockade. Slash turned around and fired at the Mongoose. He destroyed the Mongoose and waited until we passed the blockade. Once we passed the blockade he fired at the blockade. I kept driving. I made a sharp left turn and kept going. A Hornet was behind us. The Hornet fired missiles at the Warthog. I drove up a ramp truck and the missiles hit the ramp truck. I kept driving while Slash was shooting at the Hornet. The Hornet crashed and pushed us ahead a little. I turned and Slash and I jumped out of the Warthog. It crashed into a building full of Marines, blocking their exit. We ran across the street to the office building. We climbed up the windows until we got to the roof. We started to jump across the rooftops. I saw an enemy Pelican fly over. It had been shot down by something, but what?

We kept jumping across. A Marine jetpack squad was on the rooftops as well. They shot their battle rifles at us. I fired my SMG while Slash fired his Evolved Magnum. The Marines flew behind us and let us go ahead, so we did. We kept running and running until the Marines returned with Rocket Launchers. I jumped over one shot while Slash jumped over another. I ducked, barely dodging a rocket. We kept firing. We killed two of them. There were still three more. I jumped up on a Marine and took his rockets. I jumped off of him and fired at the other Marine, while Slash killed the Marine I had just jumped off of. The squad was down. We kept jumping.

We arrived at the building across the extraction point. We jumped off and slowly walked over to the harbor. I could see a Pelican. I walked over and a Spartan walked out of the Pelican. It was Agent California. I handed him Delta 2.0.

"Thank you."

Except it wasn't Delta. It was a UNSC Spartan. I had been tricked.

**Part 8:**

I had been tricked.

I turned around and two Spartans were holding Slash. Slash's weapons were on the ground.

"An Evolved Magnum? Why do you have this?"

"Slash. Hold on. This may hurt a little."

"Shut up, Florida! You're under arrest. This is the same reason we destroyed Florida! You were too good of a Freelancer. We had to get rid of you!"

They really did. Florida was destroyed. But not by the Covenant. By the UNSC themselves. They destroyed their own state just to stop me. I must have been the number one Freelancer. But better than Carolina was? And Tex? I didn't think I was.

"How are you even here? I thought Florida was still destroyed!""Sir. The Freelancer Program reclaimed Florida recently."

"Oh."

I kicked Slash and it pushed back the two Spartans. I grabbed one of them and threw him at the Spartan in the Pelican. He fell over and dropped Delta 2.0. I dived over to catch it. I caught it and put it in front of me. I jumped on the Pelican and kept punching the Spartan. Slash got up and started to beat up the other Spartan that was still up. He picked up his Evolved Magnum and fired at the Spartan on the ground, killing him. I threw the Spartan on the Pelican at Slash. Slash caught the Spartan and hit the other Spartan with him. I ran over to the cockpit and the Pelican lifted off. I grabbed the pilot and shot the glass. I made a hole in the glass. I threw the pilot threw the hole then ran to the back of the Pelican. I jumped off of the Pelican and landed on one of the Spartans. Slash killed the other Spartan with his sniper rifle. I pulled out my empty Spartan Laser and grabbed the Spartan.

"Please. Please Florida! I'll do anything! Anything! I'll polish your boots! I'll polish your helmet! I'll help you out! I'll do anything!"

I threw the Spartan up in the air. When he came back down, I hit him as hard as I could with the Spartan Laser. He fell down all the way. The Pelican fell with him.

"Out of the park."

I walked over to the edge of the landing pad.

"Director. We're ready."

"Good."

I saw a Pelican fly in. It landed on the platform. I handed Agent California Delta 2.0. Slash and I hopped on the Pelican.

**Part 9:**

I walked into the board room. The Director was standing there. Slash was behind me. I was holding Delta 2.0.

"Hello Agent Florida."

"Hello Sir."

"Hand over the A.I."

I walked over to him. I handed him Delta 2.0 and sat back down.

"Good. Well done Florida, and Slash."

"Thank you sir."

"Now. Did you figure out if they gave this a real name yet?""They didn't Sir. The capsule said Delta 2.0."

"Interesting. Then we will have to give it our own name."

"Yes Sir."

"I'm sure you wouldn't like an A.I., would you?""I would be alright with it Sir."

"Really? Well then, once we go through the A.I. training and we give him a name, then you can have him."

"Thank you sir."

"You are dismissed for now. Go rest up.""Actually Sir, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it Agent?""I was wondering if Slash and I could go down to Florida soon to figure out some history behind why the UNSC destroyed it."

"They told you?""Yup. One of the Spartans."

"Hm... Sure. Not now though. Go rest up."

"Yes Sir! Come on Slash, let's go."

Slash and I got up and left. We went up to our rooms and rested, like the Director told us to.

"Time for the training."

The Director put Delta 2.0 on the table. We weren't in the room during this.

"Hello."

"Hello. Where am I. Who are you?""Later. But for now, do you know your name?"

"Delta.""Delta what?""Just Delta. Who are you? Where am I?

"Wrong. You are Delta 2.0. Who are you?"

"Delta."

"Delta what?"

"Delta 2.0"

"Correct. Now, say it at the same time. Who are you?"

"Delta 2.0"

"Good."

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"I am the Director. You are in the board room."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Now. You will be assigned to Agent Florida."

"Okay."

"Who are you assigned to?"

"Agent Wyoming."

"Wrong. Agent Florida. Who are you assigned to?"

"Agent Florida."

"Good. Any more questions?"

"No Director."

"Good. We will meet again tomorrow to do this again. We need to make sure you are ready to go out on the field."

"Yes Director."

"Goodbye."

The Director left the room.


	3. Chapter 2: Operation Florida

Chapter 2: Operation: Florida

**Part 1:**

It's been about a week since I was in Georgia. I had learned that the UNSC had blown up the state of Florida to get rid of me. I don't know how it was reclaimed though.

I walked into the conference room, ready for my gift."Florida, there you are!"

"Hello, Director."

"I have a gift for you today."

"What is it sir?"

"It's this. Delta 2.0"

"Hello. My name is Delta. 2.0."

"Wow. Really? An A.I.?"

"Yes. He already went through his training."

"Good."

"Now. We need to talk about your upcoming missions.""Actually sir, I had another mission in mind."

"What is it this time Florida?""Slash and I, we were planning to go down to Florida. Find out some facts about it."

"Your state, huh?""Yes sir. While I was in Georgia, a Marine told me that they destroyed Florida to get rid of me. I want to know more about it."

"Hmm... Alright. That seems to be fine. Are you okay with that Delta 2.0?""Yes sir."

"Good. Then it's settled. Get Slash ready. You can leave whenever you want."

"Thank you sir."

"Your welcome."

I took Delta 2.0 and left the room."Look buddy, you can talk, but not too much. You understand?"

"I understand."

"Good."

I walked back over to Slash's room. I woke him up and we headed to one of the hangars. We told a pilot about our mission. He agreed to fly us down to Florida. We walked onto the Pelican and we lifted off, towards Florida. What I didn't know, was that something was still happening in Georgia.

"Sir!"

"What is it?"

"Agent Florida. He got the package. He got Delta 2.0"

"What?"

"What are you doing sir?""I can track down Delta 2.0 anywhere. I'm about to find their location, if he's with Florida."

"Nice. How do you do that?"

"I'll tell you another time."

"Got it."

"They're headed towards Florida, in what looks like to be a Pelican. Code 5.43."

"Code 5.43?"

"Yes."

"Yes sir!"

"Well Delta 2.0. Looks like you're with me now."

I put Delta 2.0 into a chip and put the chip into my helmet.

**Part 2:**

We were flying across New York. We didn't want to arise any suspicions in Florida. It was smooth sailing. Nothing could happen. We were going to land on the border of Florida and Georgia. We would then drive down to Florida.

Somewhere in New York, a Marine had set up an Anti-Air turret. When he saw us fly over, he shot three missiles at us. They were heat-seeking too, so there was no way of escaping them.

"Florida. I got some bad news."

"What is it?"

"We've got missiles on our tail."

"I see them too," Slash said.

"Where?"

"Just a few miles behind us."

"Heat-Seeking?""Yes sir."

"Great. Slash, get a jetpack."

"You got it." Slash put on his jetpack.

"Where are we expected to crash."

"Somewhere in North Carolina. Probably in the mountains."

"Great. Do you have a jetpack?""Hey, a captains gotta go down with his ship."

"You sure?""Yup. I'm staying."

"Okay."

"Good luck Florida."

"Thanks." I walked over to Slash. I picked up my jetpack and jumped off. Slash had his jetpack on already. He then jumped off after me.

I watched the missiles hit the Pelican. I watched the Pelican crash. I put my jetpack on and looked at Slash.

"Hey! We better go check out the crash site!""What?""Just follow me!"I flew over toward the Pelican and Slash followed. The jetpacks didn't of too much fuel left in them, but enough to last a while. I stopped and waited. I heard the Pelican explode. We weren't far away from it.

"Let's go Slash."

"You got it."

We flew over to the Pelican. It had landed exactly where the pilot expected. The mountains of North Carolina. We landed down near the Pelican. Our jetpacks were out of fuel.

"Maybe there are more in the Pelican.""We can check."We walked into the crashed Pelican. Seats were burned up. There weren't any jetpacks left."Guess not."

"I'm gonna check on the pilot."

I walked over into the other room. I looked at the pilot. He was hung over his chair. He took of his helmet. His eyes were shut. If he was dead, he was expecting it. I checked his pulse. Nothing.

"He's dead.""Great. No jetpacks, no pilot, now what?"

"There's a car shop a little ways down the mountain. They'll probably have civilian Warthogs. If they do, there's a turret in here. I'll carry it."

"Okay. Let's hurry though, we don't want to be late."

We walked down the dirt road.

**Part 3:**

We continued down the dirt road. We walked for around ten minutes until we finally reached 'Mr. Buck's Car Lot." We walked over to the building. Nobody was there. It looked like nobody had been there in years. We opened the door up and walked in.

"A customer? A customer! Oh no! Not the military! Are you coming back to shut me down? I've told your other soldiers that I got a shotty in the back that I ain't afraid to use!"

"Relax. Are you Mr. Buck?""Yup. Now scram!""We're here to buy something."

"I told you to... wait. Buy something? Really?""Yeah. We need a civilian Warthog."

"You got one! How much money you got?"

"We'll give you half of all our money.""How much is that?""Only 200,000 dollars. Is that okay?""200,000! Boy, that's a lot! Hand it over!"

I handed him a check for 200,000.

"Sorry about it being a check. There's a bank nearby if you want to cash it in."

"That's fine."

We walked outside. I picked up the turret and put it on the back of the Warthog. Slash hopped in the driver seat, and I hopped in the turret. Mr. Buck gave Slash the keys.

"So long!""See ya!"

We drove off. We were slowly driving down the mountain.

"Let's take a shortcut.""Where?""Let me drive. I'll show you."Slash and I switched seats. I went as fast as I could and I drove off the mountain.

**Part 4:**

I drove off the mountain.

"Are you crazy?"

We landed in a forest. There was a straight path through the forest. I drove as fast as I could. Slash turned around and saw enemy Warthogs.

"I think Buck told our friends where we were."

"What do you mean?""Look for yourself!"

I turned around and saw the Warthogs.

"Shit."

I kept driving as fast as I could. Slash turned the turret around and fired at the Warthogs. The enemy Warthogs started to fire back.

"Left!"

I turned left. The Warthogs followed.

"This Warthogs gonna blow! Rip off the turret! We're jumping."

"Got it."

Slash ripped off the turret and I jumped off the Warthog, rolling toward the enemy Warthogs. I rolled all the way to the back one and grabbed the driver seat. I grabbed the Marine and threw him off. I pulled out a Magnum and shot at him, then at the gunner. I hopped in the Warthog and fired at the Marine in the side. I started to fire at the Warthog in front of me.

Slash jumped off the back of the Warthog and landed on an enemy Warthog. He fired at the gunner and the Marine on the side. He threw the turret at the Warthog behind him and threw the driver off. The Warthog in front of me went out of control and I jumped onto it. A Hornet approached. I threw the driver off and shot the gunner. I killed the Marine in the side and Slash jumped into the gunner seat. I jumped off and grabbed the turret. I shot a grappling hook at the back of the Warthog and climbed the rope as I was being dragged. I hopped back into the driver seat. I made a sharp right turn. The Hornet was gone.

"Why didn't it follow us?""I don't know. Don't worry about it. Let's just keep going."

I drove out of the forest. We were back on the road.

"It's getting late. We better stop by somewhere.""How about we stop by the bar. Have a few drinks."

"Alright." We walked into the bar.

**Part 5:**

We walked into the bar with our Magnums in our tactical cases. Everyone was staring at us. We were the only ones with Spartan armor. We walked up to the bartender.

"Hey! How you doing?"

"Good. Give us two beers."

"Any particular ones? Bud Light? Coors Light?"

"Bud Light."

"You got it."

The bartender started to pour us some beer.

"By the can, please.""Alright."He grabbed a new can and handed us both our cans.

"Alright. Here you go. You know that will be ten dollars don't you?"

"Yeah. Here."I handed him the money. Four Marines entered the bar with Assault Rifles. The civilians ran out the door.

"There he is!"

The Marines were aiming at us.

"Whoa! You a criminal? I don't do criminals! I'm out!"

The bartender ran out.

We pulled out our Magnums.

They started to fire and we fired back. Slash grabbed a stool and threw it at one of them. I ran up to one and punched his face. I then shot his head. They were dead.

I could hear a helicopter outside. The roof broke. Three ODST's were coming in. They rappelled down and the helicopter stayed in the air. We grabbed Assault Rifles and started to fire at the ODST's. They all had Machine Gun turrets. I hid behind a pool table and Slash hid behind a regular table. I was blind firing at the ODST's. One walked over to me and I grabbed his turret and kneed him in the balls. I pulled his turret away and hit him with it. I fired at another ODST.

The other ODST walked over to Slash. Slash grabbed the ODST's helmet and pulled it off. He pulled out his Magnum and shot the ODST in the head. He then started to fire at the last ODST. We killed all of them. We ran outside and the helicopter was out there. The helicopter started to fire at us and we had to dodge the bullets. I pulled out my communicator. The helicopter fired at it and it broke.

"Crap. Slash! Throw over your communicator!"

"You got it!"Slash threw over his communicator. The helicopter fired at it and broke it also."Damn it! Now we can't contact anyone!"

I jumped and grabbed onto a window. Slash was acting as a distraction. I got on top of the building. Slash moved to a certain position so I was able to jump onto the helicopter.

"I don't recommend doing this," Delta 2.0 said to me.

"What did I tell you about talking?""Sorry."

I jumped onto the helicopter and threw a grenade into the cockpit. I let go and landed on the ground. The helicopter exploded into lots of little pieces.

"God."

"Maybe Delta can tell us where we are?"

"Maybe. I'll see. Delta 2.0. Can you show us a map of the United states with our location on it?""Yes sir."A holographic map appeared.

"Zoom in so we can see all of North Carolina and a little bit of Georgia."It zoomed in. We were close to Georgia.

"We're almost there. Let's set out on foot for now. You can put the map away now."

"Okay."He put the map away. We set off towards the border.

**Part 6:**

The Malfunction was noticed.

It was first noticed on the way to the border. Slash noticed it. He noticed, "How are we in North Carolina and close to Georgia. There's a South Carolina also! Check the map again."

I opened up the map. South Carolina was completely off the map.

"You think, maybe, the Director's hiding something from us?""It must be a problem with the A.I."

"I don't know. What if, what if the UNSC took out South Carolina also? Haven't you noticed that there is only one Carolina but two Dakota's?""Yeah, I've noticed. I don't think anything happened to South Carolina. Probably just a malfunction."

"We can ask the Director after we get to Florida. Let's just slowly walk around where South Carolina should be."

"No need. Look here." Slash pointed to a sign. It read: "Teleporter to Georgia."

"Something's definitely up." We walked into the teleporter and came out the other side, at Georgia.

"It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. They don't want us going into South Carolina. It isn't showing up on maps either. Remember, this wasn't created by the Freelancers. It was created by the UNSC. They would know. You think Carolina knows about this?"

"I see where your going with this. I believe you now. Hm... Why wouldn't the Director tell us about this?"

"I don't know. Same reason to not tell us about Florida, whatever that was. Come on. Let's go."

We kept walking down.

**Part 7:**

We were in Georgia. It looked like shit.

All that was there was rubble. We were looking at a broken city. We knew that the whole city had to be like this. Dead Marines were all over.

"We were here not long ago."

"I know."

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

Slash walked into some rubble. He picked up a note. He read the note off.

"I have come to rule the world! You may not know me well. I am O'Mally! Mwahahaha! Everyone should be dead by now."

"Wait. O'Mally? That's Omega."

"I guess so."

"Well then. He must be in someone's body."

"I've heard about them. Reds. Blues. Both of them. One of them was infected by Omega at one point."

"Who?""His name was Doc. Something like that. I'm not sure."

"Well let's hurry. We can't spend too much time here."

"Right."

We started to run through the rubble. We were looking around in case there was a car anywhere. All of the cars were destroyed though. I heard a noise.

"Stop."

We both stopped.

"What?""What was that?""What was what?""That noise."

It came again.

"That."

"Sounds like a ghost to me."

"A ghost. Wait a second. Omega and Doc. They used a ghost."

"It can't be them. Probably some survivor."

"Hey!""Don't get his attention."

"We know it's you Omega!""No we don't!"

"Hehehe...""See that. What kind of survivor would laugh like that?""Any kind!"The ghost appeared. It turned toward us. A purple Spartan hopped out of the ghost. He was carrying a plasma pistol. He had a rocket launcher on his back.

"That's him. That's Doc. And Omega, together."

"Hello Shisno's," a robotic voice said.

**Part 8:**

"Gamma?"

"Yes. Bwahaha! I have teamed up with my friend Gary. Introduce yourself Gary."

"Hello Shisno. I am Gary or Gamma. You may call me what ever you like."

"He's been having a few bugs. His speech may be a little incorrect. But whatever! HAHAHA!"

Slash asked me, "Should I kill him."

"O'Mally isn't our problem here. Our problem is that he has Gamma. I should return him to the Director.""Really?""Yes."

"What are you talking about? I am the strong one here! Not this stupid machine. I also brought back my robotic army for my glorious day of victory! Come out!"

The robots were brown Mark VI Spartans. They moved slowly.

"What? Ah great! Again Lopez?"

"Told you. This army can't fight."

"Come on Gamma! Let's kill them!"

"No. You callled me stup-id. That was very mean. I shall not let you in me. Boop."

"Let's just walk away," I whispered.

"Stand back you old Shisno. I will fight them off."

"Who you calling old?" O'Mally asked.

The ghost revved up. I pulled out my Magnum. So did Slash.

"Good bye Shisno."

The ghost drove toward me. I jumped over the ghost and shot O'Mally's arm. He dropped his gun and Slash fired at the ghost. I rolled over to O'Mally and grabbed his Rocket Launcher. I put it on my back and picked up the plasma pistol. I shouted out to Slash.

"Hey! I got a plan!"

Slash ran over to me and I whispered into his ear. I told him the plan. O'Mally tried to get back up. I stepped on his chest and handed the plasma pistol to Slash. The ghose drove at Slash and hit him. It kept going farther away. I pulled out my Magnum and shot O'Mally's chest. I then pulled out the rocket launcher and aimed it at the ghost. It was an older model, so I was able to lock on. I locked on to the ghost and fired.

Slash saw the rocket coming. He charged up his plasma pistol and fired at the ghost. It stopped. He jumped over the ghost and the rocket and the rocket hit the ghost. The ghost exploded. Slash got a little hurt from the explosion, but it wasn't too bad. I ran over to him.

"You alright?""Yeah. I'm fine. There's the ghost."

We walked over to the ghost. I pulled out the chip that Gamma was in.

"It's damaged but somebody should be able to fix it."

"Good."

I walked back over to where I left O'Mally. He was gone. I looked around. He was nowhere to be found.

"Where'd he go?""I don't know."

"He was right there."

"It doesn't matter now. Let's just hurry before someone else shows up. Or before that army finally fires."

We started to run. The army followed very slowly.

**Part 9:**

We crossed over the border. I looked around. In front of us was a big barricade. The one that opens. Like on High Ground. There was a Freelancer soldier on the turret.

"Hello Agent Florida! Welcome to Florida! We'll open the door for you."

Another soldier walked into the room and pressed a button. He continued to walk across the bridge. The door slowly opened. We started to walk in. I looked around. There were tons of Freelancer soldiers. Some walking around. Some carrying injured soldiers on their back. Some soldiers on the ground getting healed by a medic. A soldier ran up to me and welcomed me to Florida.

"What happened here? Why are so many people injured?"

"We've had some problems. The UNSC keep coming to the entrance. We have to fight back. They even bombed us one time. I wouldn't stay here for long."

"I need to. This is where I'm from. I need to protect my homeland. Now come on. I'll help you out."

"Perhaps you want something to eat? We have some burgers on the grill now."

"We can eat. Take us to the grill."

"Alright. Follow me!"

We followed him over to the grill. There was a Soldier handing out plates with burgers on them. We grabbed our burgers and sat on a picnic bench. We ate our food in silence. I saw something that looked familiar. I looked at it for a while. I stood up and threw my plate at him as hard as I could. It hit his head and he turned around.

"But how? I killed you!"

It was the ODST from the very beginning. I couldn't believe it. I walked over to him.

"So I snuck into Florida."

He pulled out his flamethrower and started to fire at me. The other soldiers ran away. I jumped over the flames. I ducked behind a picnic bench. He set the bench on fire. I jumped over the burning bench and punched the ODST in the groin. I pulled off his helmet and threw it at him. I backflipped and pulled out my Magnum.

"This won't work! I need something better!"

"Here!"Slash threw me his Evolved Magnum. I aimed at the ODST's head.

I fired three shots.

They all hit his head. He went down. I looked at him and turned around. I threw the Evolved Magnum to Slash and turned back around. Just like O'Mally, he was gone."But? But?""Where'd he go?"

"I don't know."

A Soldier ran up to me.

"You alright?"

"Yeah."

"You need anything."

"Do you know any way I could communicate with the Director?"

"Oh yeah sure."

He handed me a device. I called the Director.

"Hello Florida."

"I'm there. I'm at Florida."

"Very good."

"O'Mally. He was in Georgia. He was with Gamma."

"Did you get both Omega and Gamma on chips?"

"I got Gamma, but O'Mally got away."

"Omega is a sneaky one. Anything else?"

"One question. What happened to South Carolina."

"I'm sorry. I can't answer that now. I have business to do."

The Director hung up.

I grabbed a Battle Rifle and headed to the entrance. I got up on the bridge. I closed the gate.

"Time to protect."


	4. Chapter 3: Revelations

Chapter 3: Revelations

I walked up to the bridge in silence. I looked around. Everyone was dead. All the soldiers I once knew, dead. Bomb shells hitting the ground once more. I looked up, ready for my fate. I dropped my weapon and held my arms out wide, welcoming death. I don't mean anything, I'm worthless. Please Death, take me away…

I awoke. I must have been dreaming. A Soldier was right next to me, holding my hand.

"Florida. Thank God you're alive!"

He hugged me. I wasn't sure what he meant. I just went to get some rest a little while back.

"What happened?"

"You fell into a coma. I don't know exactly what happened, but in your sleep you kept whispering something. Something like, 'take me away…'"

"Take me away. Take… me… away."

I got up and walked outside. I pulled out my Magnum. I walked into the building across from mine. Slash was sitting on the bed. His helmet was off.

"Hey Florida. What you doing up."

I kept walking towards him. I grabbed his arm and pinned him down to the bed."

"What? What the hell are you doing Florida?"

"I have to do this. I took you out of the jail. Ever since you showed up, people escaped, and I learned about states being destroyed. What did you do to get into that prison!"

"That prison? Ha. That prison. You wanna know what happened?"

"Tell me…"

"Just give me some space."

"Fine."

I let go of Slash. He got up and paced around the room. I kept aiming the Magnum at his head.

"I was sent to that prison for, destroying Florida."

"What?"

"The UNSC was planning to destroy the state of Florida. I couldn't let that happen. I was flying a Pelican over to talk with the UNSC. You know, try to set them straight. I had brought a target locater with me. I boarded one of their Pelicans and tried to talk to them. I got on top and charged up the Target Locater because they wouldn't listen to me. A Marine got up to the top and hit the locater right out of my hands. It targeted Florida, and the frigate of my team fired down. It was a disaster."

I pulled down the Magnum. I slowly walked over to him. I grabbed his arm lightly. I then gripped my hand as tight as I could around his arm.

"What?"

I aimed the Magnum at his head again. I fired a whole clip into his head. He fell down. I had killed my best friend. Slash. I even started to cry a little. I kept crying until I couldn't see through my helmet.

"I know you're lying. Someone told me about you. Your Sam Slash. You were the Marine who blew up Florida. First you blow up Florida. And now you lie to me about it. I threw my Magnum at Slash's body and walked out. A Soldier ran up to me.

"What happened in there?"

"I killed Slash."

"What?"

"He was lying to us the whole time. He was the one who blew up Florida. I should have known. He told me he was Slash. Sam Slash was the Marine who blew up Florida. I'm glad he's gone."

"I can't believe it. Slash was, lying?"

"Yup. He was."

I walked over to the bridge again. I looked outside. I thought of Slash again. I started to cry. I walked back over to my room and threw my helmet to the wall. I had known Slash too long. And now I had to kill him.

I grabbed my helmet and went outside. I put my helmet back on. People were staring at me. They were speechless. They knew what I had done. I saw a Soldier carrying Slash's body. I walked past him. I walked up to the door. I looked up to the bridge.

"Open up the door."

"Yes sir!"

The Soldier opened up the door. It opened slowly. I pulled out my Magnum and walked outside. The door slowly shut behind me. I knew what I had to do. I had to leave this place. I hopped on a Mongoose.

"Where you going?"

"South Carolina."

I drove off. I drove as fast as I could.

It was getting late. I parked the Mongoose at a hotel. I walked right in with my Magnum in my Tactical Case. I walked up to the desk.

"One room."

"Sorry. We're all booked up. You'll have to make a reservation next time."

I hopped over the counter.

"Whoa! Easy there! I can call Security on you!"

"I'm part of the…."

I remembered something. These people weren't exactly fans of the Freelancers. They were under UNSC control.

"the UNSC."

"Too bad."

"Just let me sleep in the back. I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Fine, but you have to pay me a hundred dollars!"

"I'll pay you in advance."

I handed the man the money. The man continued to work for the rest of the night while I was sound asleep in the back room.

I woke up. The man was gone. I hopped over the counter again. Nobody was eating breakfast. I looked out the window. Outside were tons of Warthogs. UNSC Warthogs. The people were out there also. They were evacuated by the Marines. I pulled out my Magnum. I walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. It opened up, and I went up to the top floor. I walked down a long hallway until I got to a door that said, 'To Roof.' I opened up the door slowly, in case any Marines were up there. There was one. A sniper. I slowly walked over to him. I grabbed his neck and twisted it. I picked up his sniper rifle and picked up the body. I threw the body onto the roof and put the crouched down. I aimed at the UNSC Commander of this operation.

Three shots.

The three shots took the Commander down. The other Marines looked at me. The Scorpion even aimed at me. I jumped down and rolled into a Marine. I picked him up and threw him at the Marine next to me. The Scorpion fired at me and I jumped to the left, dodging the bullet. The Scorpion had killed the two Marines. I rolled and punched a Marine in the face, knocking him out. I stood still. I was surrounded by Marines. They all started to fire. I jumped up so the Marines were firing at each other. I landed on a Marine and kicked another Marine into another. I picked up his Assault Rifle and fired at the Marines on the other side. They all died. I put the Assault Rifle on my back and looked at the Warthog. The gunner started to fire at me. The Warthog started moving. I ran up and grabbed the Marine on the side. I threw him at the gunner and they both fell off. I hopped onto the turret and ripped it off. I fired at the driver, but the Warthog kept going forward. I jumped off the Warthog and fired at the Scorpion. The Warthog made a dent into the Hotel, but the Warthog also exploded. I threw the turret at another Warthog and dashed towards the Scorpion. He fired at me, but I jumped on top of the bullet and landed on the cockpit. I threw a grenade into the cockpit and backflipped off. The Scorpion exploded. Two Hornets start flying over to the hotel. I ran inside the hotel. I ran all the way up to the roof and picked up the sniper rifle. A jumped off the building and grabbed onto the side of a Hornet. The other Hornet was unable to see me. I got on top of the Hornet and sniped the pilot of the other Hornet. It fell down and crashed onto a Warthog. I ran down to the cockpit of the Hornet I was on. I opened the cockpit and grabbed the pilot. The Hornet started falling. I threw him onto the roof of the building and then jumped for the roof. I grabbed onto the ledge and watched the Hornet fall. Once it exploded, I hopped up the ledge. The pilot started to fire at me with his Magnum. I ran up to him and punched his face. I grabbed his Magnum and unloaded a whole clip into him. He fell down, dead. I looked over the edge. Everyone was dead. I put the pilots Magnum on my side, on the other side as my Magnum. I hopped over the ledge. I walked down the road.

I was walking down the road. I looked around me. No Marines to be found. Just beautiful scenery. I kept walking down. I knew there had to be Marines somewhere. I just didn't know where. I kept walking down. I saw a gas station down the road, so I walked towards it. I entered the gas station.

"What can I get for ya?" Said a man with a deep southern accent.

"Just wanted to check the place out."

"You can't just check it out! Come on! Buy something."

"Alright. Give me, that gum. I guess.""Alright. There you go. That'll be a dollar fifty."

"Here."

I handed him one dollar.

"Still need fifty cents.""Shut it. I'm leaving."

"Give me my fifty cents."

"I'm part of the UNSC. I don't need to pay you."

"Fine. Stupid UNSC."

I walked out of the building put the gum away. A sniper shot was shot down right next to me. I looked up. There was a UNSC Sniper on the mountain. I ran over to the mountain so he couldn't see me. I started climbing the mountain. It took about three minutes to climb the mountain, but then I got to the top. The sniper shot, but missed. I grabbed him and threw him to the ground. I picked up his sniper rifle and fired at his head. He was dead. I searched him for anything, and found a communication device.

It said, "We're on our way. We'll get him."I knew they were talking about me. I went to the sniper's old spot and sat there. Ready to snipe them.

I held the sniper rifle tight on that position. I was waiting for the Marines to come. The snipers dead body had fallen off of the cliff. I could hear a Warthog coming. I aimed at the road. The Warthog drove up and pulled over on the side. I thought that they were going to send out Marines, but instead they sent out ODST's. Two ODST's got out of the Warthog to inspect the dead body. The third was on the Warthog turret, looking around. I got up and put the sniper rifle on my back. The sniper rifle wasn't capable of doing enough damage to them, plus I would probably miss. I peeked over the cliff. There was no way I could make the jump.

"You know, the Director added an ability to me. You will be able to survive that fall as long as I activate it."

Delta 2.0. I had completely forgotten about him. He had done an excellent job of keeping quiet.

"Well then activate it."

"Activated."

I backed up so I could gain some speed. I ran towards the edge of the cliff. Once I got to the edge, I jumped off. The ODST's looked up.

"What the hell is th-"

I landed on an ODST. He was knocked over. I rolled and got up. The Warthog turret aimed at me."

"Freeze Florida!"

"Don't tell him to freeze. We need him dead."

The ODST aimed at my head with a shotgun. My hands were up and frozen. He was ready to shoot. I grabbed the shotgun. He fired but I moved out of the way. I got behind him and the turret started to fire. The turret was firing at the ODST.

"That's me dumbass!"

I kneed him in the back and grabbed his arm. I twisted it around and took his shotgun out of his hands. I shot him in the back of the head with it. He fell over, but he wasn't dead. The turret started firing at me. I ran over behind a rock. The ODST kept firing at me. I pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin. I threw it at the Warthog. It exploded and flipped the Warthog over. I climbed on top of the rock.

"Shit! Come on!" The ODST was trying to lift up the Warthog. I ran up to him and punched his gut. I punched his face twice and kicked his gut. He fell over. I stood there. All three of the ODST's got up. I ran up to one and picked him up. I threw him at another and then jumped onto both of them. I pulled out a button and backflipped over to the gas station. I pressed the button. A giant crack formed in the ground. The mountain started to collapse. An ODST ran up to me and I threw him into the gas station. I shot one of the gas tanks and the gas station exploded. I turned around and pulled out my sniper rifle. I sniped one ODST which killed him. The other ODST came up and punched my gut. I dropped the sniper rifle. He then kicked my gut and I flew back, hitting rubble of the gas station. I got up from the ground and pulled out my shotgun. I ran up to the ODST. He was ready to counter my attack by grabbing me and throwing me. Instead of punching him, I jumped onto his hand a flipped over him. I shot him in the back twice with the shotgun and then threw it at his head. He fell over. I walked over to him and picked up his body. I threw it into the hole that I made earlier. He fell down screaming. I looked down the hole. I then turned to the broken up road. I started to make my way down it.

I entered the land. I entered South Carolina.

It took two days. One of walking and one of driving. I went past the teleporter and parked the Warthog. I hopped out.

"You shouldn't have any problems with Marines. It seems that this place is empty."

"Good."

I walked forward. I looked around in all directions. Nobody was to be found. Nothing was here. I turned around and looked at the Warthog. I was walking backwards. I turned back around and stopped.

"Looking for me?"

I punched O'Mally in the face and kicked his gut to send him flying. He hit a broken building. He got right back up.

"Eat rockets bitch! Hahaha!"

O'Mally fired two rockets at me then hid behind rubble. I jumped over one rocket and dodged another. I slowly walked up to the rubble O'Mally was behind.

I grabbed O'Mally's arm and he dropped his rocket launcher. He kicked me and grabbed Gamma from my side.

"Give him back!"

O'Mally turned and started to run away. I pulled out my Magnum and fired a clip at him. He fell over and dropped Gamma. I ran up to him and punched him while he was on the ground. I walked over and picked Gamma up.

"Put him in me."

"What?"

"I learned that I can program other A.I.'s with me."

"Do it."

"Okay. I will be offline for a little while."

"Why?"

"I can't be online while I am programming."

"Okay. Fine."

Delta 2.0. shut down. I walked over to O'Mally and picked him up.

"Go ahead! Kill me! Bwahahah!"

I punched him in the face and threw him on the ground. I kicked his balls and stepped on his chest. I walked right over him and turned around. I pulled out my shotgun and shot him with the shotgun.

"You thought you could take me."

"I am back online."

"Good. Did the programming work?"

"…..Yes….."

"What's with the silence?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask yourself?"

My head started to hurt very badly. I grabbed my helmet, but it wouldn't come off.

"Gamma…."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

I fell over and fainted…

I awoke. I wasn't in South Carolina. I was in the Mother of Invention."Florida, it's time for your practice. Again."

"I'll be there."

I left the room and walked to the training room. I looked down. My feet were green. I turned around. There was a Freelancer Soldier there.

"Why are my feet green?""You're all green. That's the training armor dumbass. You haven't gotten your real armor yet."

"What?"I turned around. Behind me were two Freelancers. Agent Carolina and Agent Washington.

"This a free for all?""Yup. Me against you against Wash here. Good luck."

"Like he could win a fight."

"What?"

We got ready to computer counted down from three. I ran up to Carolina. I was gonna show them. I didn't know what they were talking about. Me not being good? I ran up and tried to kick Carolina in the gut. She grabbed my leg and pushed me back. Wash twisted my arm and threw me down.

"What the?"

It ended. I was back up. I was in South Carolina. I looked down. I was steel and orange."What was that?""That was your reality. This is all a dream. You must have fainted there, from Wash throwing you down."

I took the chip out of my helmet.

"I got rid of Slash, and I'll get rid of you if you don't uninstall Gamma!""I cannot do that."

I shut down the A.I. and put it in my Tactical Case. It couldn't have been reality. Or could it have been? I pulled out my Magnum and started to walk ahead. Robotic noises were heard.

I stopped. I heard robotic noises. I turned around. O'Mally was still on the ground. I walked over to him. I picked up his helmet and took off mine. I put the helmet loosely on my head. I turned on the radio. O'Mally infected me. I threw the helmet on the ground and put on my own."My radio isn't on and it's not coming on! Just stay in there!"

"Fine."

"Wait. I got a better idea."

I took out an empty chip. I placed it into Doc's helmet. O'Mally infected it. I took the chip out and put it in my Tactical Case. I turned around. O'Mally's Day of Victory army stood before me. One shot every few seconds was fired at me, to ensure the Day part. I slowly walked up to the army. There were at least fifty. I walked over to the very end. There were two rows.

"See ya army!"

I pushed over both of them. They all fell like Dominoes. I watched them fall forever. They couldn't get back up. I left them there to rot. I stepped on all of them to get across. I would keep searching South Carolina to find anything of use. I kept walking.

"More like seconds of defeat."

The army wasn't the only "Day of Victory" around here. I walked onto a white square on the ground. It looked like it was drawn with chalk. I took off my helmet and put it down. I put my finger on the white line and wiped across. I looked at it. Fresh chalk. Somebody had been there recently. I put my helmet back on and a light flashed down on me. I looked up. All I could see was a bright light. I looked back down and around me. Marines were rappeling down from Pelicans. Too many of them. ODST's came down and so did Spartans. Shotguns, Snipers, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, Magnums, Rockets and more. I dropped my magnum and put my hands up.

"Bring him in for testing. We have dangerous things that need looked at."

They dropped down a rope. I attached it to my waist and they pulled me up.

Could I find another Slash?

I was pulled up to a Pelican. I sat down on a chair. The pelican flew up to a UNSC Frigate called the Father of Destruction. It was to be the opposite of the Mother of Invention. We arrived at the Father of Destruction. I was taken out of the pelican by two Spartans. They brought me into a board room. They threw me onto the table and tied my hands together.

"So. What do you want with me?""This."

One of them took off my helmet. He walked out of the room with it.

"Looks like you'll be getting your gift soon."

"Why don't you just follow him?""Yeah right. I'm staying right here. I have to make sure you don't go anywhere."

He turned around to look down the hall. I looked at his shotgun. I wanted to take it, but I thought I should leave it. He turned back around. The other Spartan came back.

"We got it. It got fused with another A.I. though."

"Which one?""Gamma. Looks like we hit the jackpot.""Why do you want Delta 2.0?""You stole it. From us.""Yeah. We need it back. It could help us."

"You wanna know why we need Gamma?""Sure.""We've been looking for him all over. He's caused mass destruction. Gamma was the one that destroyed South Carolina."

"Yeah. We can't have him going loose.""Now we just need Omega."

I remembered that I had Omega in my Tactical Case, but I didn't want to remind them. I also remembered that I had my pistol in there. I sat there until I remembered. I have Delta 2.0 in there also.

"How did you get Delta 2.0? He wasn't in my helmet."

"There were traces of it in your helmet. It's in your Tactical Case."

"No it's not."

I had to lie. I couldn't let them take him. The director needs all of the A.I.'s and I need Delta 2.0."

"What are you talking about? We know Delta 2.0 is in there."

"And so is Gamma."

"Right. Now we're going in there."

I looked behind me. My hands were tied by a thin rope. I turned back around. The Spartans were coming closer.

"No. You're not going in there.""What?"

I broke the thin rope and pulled out my Magnum.

I fired at the Spartans. One pulled out his shotgun and the other pulled out an Assault Rifle. I jumped on top of the table and kept firing at the Spartans. They started to fire at me. The shotgunner ran up to me and I grabbed his shotgun. I threw him over me and he broke the table. I flipped the shotgun to point at him and fired three times. He died. I turned around and kicked the other Spartan before he could hit me. I jumped, backflipped and kicked him again. He fell down. I shot him three times. He was dead also. I looked out the window. Two Marines were talking to each other. I walked up to the door that was now shut. I opened the door. The two Marines looked at me and pulled out there Magnums. I ran up to one of them. They both started to fire at me. I dodged to the middle and jumped above them. I kicked both of their heads in the air and they fell over. I shot them both with the shotgun. I picked up one of the Marines bodies to use as a shield. I ran down the hall with the Marines body in front of me. My shotgun was on the side of the body. I ran towards a door. I kicked the door down and two ODST's were behind it. I ran down the middle and threw the body back. It hit one of them, pushing them back. They both fired their turrets at me. I jumped up and pulled out a frag grenade. I pulled the pin and threw it at one of them. He died from the explosion. The explosion also pushed back the other ODST."God damn it!"

I ran up to the other ODST and punched his helmet off. I shot his head with the shotgun. He fell over and died. I walked out of the room with my shotgun on my back.

"What the?""Why are you here?"

"Is it just some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a god. Watching us with a plan for us."

I kicked a Marine hard. They other Marines started firing at me. I ran onto the pelican and picked up the pilot.

"Please don't kill me!"

"We're coming in!"

"Please! Just surrender!"

"We're in. Get in there now!"

I turned around and saw an ODST. I shot the pilot with my shotgun. I then threw the body at the ODST. He fell back. I put Omega into the Pelican.

"Omega. You're the least crazy A.I. at the moment. I need you to drive the Pelican just for a little while."

"What will you do for me?""I'll get you a new body."

"Deal. Hold on tight! I'm not a great pilot!"

More Marines were getting on, but the Pelican took off fast. The Marines fell off the pelican. The ODST was still on. The back of the Pelican closed. I walked back over to the ODST.

The ODST looked at me. He had a shotgun and a turret on his back. I wasn't sure how he was carrying it, but he was. I walked closer to him. He shot at me with the shotgun. I grabbed his shotgun and kicked his chest. He flinched and I pulled away the shotgun. I put it on my back with the other shotgun.

"Omega! Open up the back!"

The back opened up. We were in Space. I kicked the ODST off but he grabbed onto the edge. He climbed up to the top of the Pelican. He started pounding on the Pelican. I jumped off the edge of the Pelican and grabbed on the edge. I then climbed to the top of the pelican. The ODST stopped pounding and pulled out his turret. He was aimed at me."I already called my buds."

I turned around. Two Pelicans were firing at us.

"Omega. Slow it down."

"Got it!"

The pelican slowed down and the enemies got closer. I ran up to the ODST and kicked his gut. He fired at me. He whacked me with his turret. I fell off the pelican and landed on an enemy one. I looked at my pelican. The ODST started to climb down, but slowly. I ran up to the front of the Pelican and opened the cockpit. I threw the pilot off and got in.

"Get ready ODST." I fired at the ODST. He jumped onto the Pelican I was in. He started heading towards the cockpit. I got out."Good luck."

The Pelican started falling. I jumped for my pelican and grabbed on the edge. I pulled up and went to the cockpit. The other Pelican fired missiles at us. We started going down. We were crashing. The Pelican left back to the Father of Destruction. The Pelican was falling. I took Omega out of the Pelican and opened up the cockpit. I got out on to the Pelican. We were falling towards Florida. When we got close to the ground, I jumped off. I landed safely. The Pelican was crashed down into the ground. I walked over to the camp. The camp I was at before.

I arrived at the camp late. I went into the building I had slept in before. There was a UNSC Marine sleeping on my bed. I picked him up and started choking him.

"Why are you here?"

"Who are you? I'm part of the UNSC! This is a UNSC camp! Exit now!"

The UNSC had taken over the camp. I killed the Marine by choking him. I couldn't stay there for long. I had to leave. I ran outside of the camp and called up California.

"What is it Florida?"

"I have all the A.I.'s I need. I'm ready to go up."

"Okay. We'll send down a Pelican."

I waited about three minutes until the Pelican arrived. California pulled me on. The pelican flew up to the Mother of Invention. When we arrived, I was told by a Soldier to meet the Director in the boardroom. I walked down to the boardroom and sat down.

"What the hell were you thinking!"

"What is it, sir?"

"You killed Slash! He was the best normal soldier around!"

"I had to. He blew up Florida with the UNSC."

"What?"

"He's Sam Slash. You know, the guy who blew up Florida?"

"I can't believe that he would lie to us."

"That's what I said."

"It's just…"

"Would you like the A.I.'s sir?"

"Yes, hand me Gamma and Omega."

I gave them to him.

"Gamma is fused with Delta 2.0 right now. We need to separate them again."

"That's fine. I'll call up a soldier now."

The Director pressed a key on the keypad.

"Send up a soldier to extract to A.I.'s from each other."

"They are on the way."

He turned around.

"Well. I guess that's all."

"Yup. I guess so."

"You are dismissed."

"Thank you sir."

I walked out of the room. I looked behind me. A soldier walked into the boardroom. I walked over to my room. I sat there and waited. I eventually fell asleep.

Disaster.

I awoke to a radio. I turned the volume up to see what the soldier was saying.

"The UNSC Father of Destruction is on it's way over to the Freelancer Mother of Invention. They say they will destroy the Mother of Invention, with their new friends."

An alarm blared. I turned off the radio and grabbed my Assault Rifle. I ran outside my room and followed the line of Soldiers.

"Not so fast."

The Director stopped me.

"I have a different job for you. You aren't going to help them. You're doing this by yourself."

"What am I doing?"

"You're gonna break into the Father of Destruction and end the UNSC."

TRILOGY END

"It's getting pointless,

Trying to keep up this game.

Broken friendships.

Watching pleasure turn to pain.

All around us,

Lines are being drawn between.

Don't believe them.

They try to tell us we're a team.

We like to think that there is something good to hold on to.

One simple reason keeps us hanging on.

They're out to break us down, to run our lives, to rule our minds.

Our days of destiny are gone.

But your dreams of turned to fear,

And it's pretty god damn clear,

That you know you can't trust anybody now.

You think they help us.

You think they give us everything.

They'll just use us.

Whatever bitter end to bring.

It gets harder.

They'll sacrifice you for their needs.

Wake the fuck up.

They'll have us crawling on our knees.

You always dreamed that there'd be more to live then all the lies.

A place you'd find where you weren't all alone.

But now you look around at what you've learned, and face the truth.

That you may never find a home.

Now your smiles have turned to tears,

And it's pretty god damn clear,

That you know you can't trust anybody now."

- Can't Trust Anybody

- Jeff Williams


	5. Chapter 4: AI's

Chapter 4: A.I.'s

I was going to do the impossible. Take out the UNSC.

I was alone in the hallway. The alarm was blaring. The Father of Destruction attacking. Soldiers fighting. I had to go alone. I turned around and looked down a hallway. If they were breaching through Hangar 1, which they were, then they were able to be breached from that hallway. I slowly walked over to the huge silver door. I pressed a button on the keypad. Nobody was in the room where they turned on the door. I saw Marines walking into the room when I turned around. The Marine got on the screen.

"Florida. We aren't letting you in."

They shut the computer down. I turned around and looked through the window. They were talking. One looked like he was ready to leave. I ran behind a Pelican. I sat there for a little. The Marine had walked out and went to the door. The other Marine opened it up. The Marine went through. When he was through, I shot at the Marines head with my Magnum through the glass. He fell over and died. I ran over to the door. The Marine turned around and saw me. I jumped on top of him. I shot him in the face. I slowly walked down the hallway. I was careful, looking for any Marines or any others. I saw a Spartan. I let him pass. I slowly creeped up to him and jumped on top of him. It was California.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

"Sorry. Thought you were part of the UNSC."

"It's fine."

I got off of him. He got up.

"I'm here to help you out."

"The Director said I was supposed to do this alone."

"Screw the Director. He doesn't know shit!"

"Alright. Fine. You can come with me. Do you know the plan?"

"No. Do you?"

"There isn't one. We'll have to think of one on the way."

We kept walking down. After about fifteen minutes, California asked,

"How long is this hallway?"

"Pretty long. We're probably only halfway through it."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Damn."

"I know. Wait."

We hid behind a box. I looked over. Nothing.

"It's safe."

We kept walking. There was a shady figure up ahead. I looked closely. It looked familiar. I ran up to it.

"Where are you going?"

"Slash?"

Slash turned around and looked at me. I ran up to him and stopped. He grabbed my arm tight.

I tried to pull away from Slash's tight grip.

"Slash… Let… go!"

"Slash? That's not Slash."

"What?"

Gamma. He had messed with my head too badly now. I was seeing things. I thought it was Slash, but if it wasn't, who could it be?

"It's me."

The ODST. How? Again? I already had killed him about ten times! How was he still alive?

"But. How?"

He threw me at a wall. I fell down and laid there. California ran up to the ODST with a grenade in his hand. He pulled the pin. The ODST pulled out a flamethrower and aimed it at California. He fired and California threw the grenade. It caught on fire, but didn't explode yet. California fell backwards and landed on the ground, underneath the scolding fire. The grenade exploded and pushed the ODST back. California got up and looked at me. I was still lying there. He ran over to me and tried to pull me up. I was stuck there. I wouldn't budge. He pulled out an Evolved Magnum from his side and fired at the ODST. The ODST threw his flamethrower at California. He rolled out of the way. The flamethrower hit the wall and fell down. It landed on top of me. I was in more pain. California got up and looked at the ODST. The ODST pulled out a Missile Pod, the same one I used at Valhalla. Windows broke open from the sides, causing us to start moving closer to them, being sucked into space. Four Heretics were now inside. They aimed at California. I was pulled out to space. California ran up to the ODST and kicked him in the balls. He grabbed him and put him on his shoulders. He let space take him closer, and he threw the ODST outside, but he had first taken the ODST's helmet off. He managed to get back onto the ground.

"I need the emergency doors to come down on my position."

"Copy that."

Emergency walls covered up the holes. All that was left was California and the Heretics. The Heretics had jetpacks. He ran up to one and started to punch him. He knocked him over and took his jetpack. He pulled out his battle rifle and started to fire at the Heretics. The Heretics started to jetpack to dodge the bullets. California flew over to a Heretic and pulled out a Bowie knife. He stabbed the Heretic's neck with it. The Heretic fell and died. He then kicked another Heretic and threw the knife at his jetpack. The Heretics jetpack went out of control, hitting walls and more. California shot his battle rifle at the Heretic. The last Heretic pulled California's jetpack off. California fell down to the ground.

"I can blow this whole place. Don't make me do it."

The Heretic flipped California over so he was now looking at him.

"You won't need to."

California jumped up and kicked the Heretics face. The Heretic was pushed backwards.

"You asked for it."

The Heretic pulled out a communicator.

"I need a firing on my position, now!"

"Yes sir."

A laser shot the bridge, tearing it in half. Everything was being sucked into space. The Heretic was the first to go. California shot the Heretic with his battle rifle. He was then sucked into space. He pressed his armor lockup and fell down to Earth. The Heretic was dead. I was still floating around, somewhere.

I was in Valhalla. This is all during the battle California had. I looked down.

"What am I doing here?"

I was green. I looked around. There were elites everywhere. I looked up. A laser shot from the tower. An elite suddenly appeared. He kicked my back and I fell over. I got up quickly and turned around. He was gone. He appeared again and was swept away by darkness.

Another dream?

I pulled out what I thought was a magnum, but it was actually an Evolved Magnum. I aimed it around. The Elite appeared again. He was a red Zealot Elite. He had an energy sword in one hand, and a plasma pistol in the other. I shot at him. It made a hole in him. It reformed to match his shape again. I ran up to him and punched him. My hand went right through his body.

"What the heck?"

"Ha ha ha."

He vanished again. He came back, but transformed into the ODST. He hit me with his flamethrower. I was pushed back onto the gravity lift. I landed on my back, under the water in the river. I got up. A crack was forming in the gray wall to my left. Three elites surrounded me. I shot my magnum at all of them. They all fell down, dead. I looked around. Nothing else was here. I walked over to the crashed pelican. Finally. I could figure out what was with the pelican. I walked inside. Inside of the pelican for some reason, was a sandy wasteland. I was in Sandtrap. The ODST appeared again, but transformed back into the Elite.

"You can hurt me now. I'll make it a fair fight."

I ran up to the Elite and punched his chest a few times. He was barely pushed back. He hit me with his energy sword as hard as he could. I flew far. I landed on an Elephant.

"I haven't seen one of these in forever."

"Hello again Florida."

Gamma was controlling the Elephant. It started to move. The Elite appeared behind me and pushed me over. He stabbed me with his energy sword. He pulled it back out. I should have been dead, but the wound automatically healed up. I looked at the Elite.

"Thanks. Whoever that was."

"You're welcome."

Delta 2.0 was talking. When he talked, everything turned green.

"Thanks, Delta. 2.0."

I kicked the Elite as hard as I could. He didn't move too much, but we were off the Elephant. A whole formed in the sky. It was trying to suck us in. We were now floating towards it. I pulled out a Bowie Knife and stabbed the Elite.

"Ahh!"

The Elite flipped a switch on his armor. He regenerated the wound. He fell into the hole. I grabbed onto the edge of the hole, but I was finally sucked into it.

I was floating in space.

I awoke in space. I looked to my right. A saw a figure falling down towards Earth. The UNSC Father of Destruction was also there. I looked to my left. The Mother of Invention was there. I looked back down. Earth. I pressed the armor lock button on my suit. I armor locked all the way down to Earth.

I landed in a grassy area. I unlocked. I was in Valhalla. I got up and looked around. The pelican was there. There were bodies on the ground. Elite bodies. Some of them Heretics, others Covenant. This was the site of a battle. Broken Wraiths were lying around. I walked over to the pelican. There was a door there with a keypad. I pressed a button on the keypad.

"Please enter code."

I tried UNSC CORP. It didn't work. I then tried other codes, but none of them ended up working. I walked away from the pelican. I was going to need help. That ODST. If he was protecting the UNSC, then he's part of the UNSC. I needed to find him. I didn't know if he was on that ship or not. I looked at my communicator. I was getting a call from California.

"What is it?"

"Good. You're safe."

"Yeah. Where are you? Still on the frigate?

"Nah. I should be close to you. I'm on Isolation. Where are you?"

"Valhalla. That means you're just on the other side of this wall right?"

"Yup."

"Alright. I'll see what I can do about it."

I ran over to the gray wall. I rammed into it a few times.

"Not gonna work. I already tried that."

I remembered something. In my dream, the wall started to crumble. That could have been foreshadowing to this.

"I had a dream. I was fighting, something. That's not important. What is important is that the wall started crumbling, but I had nothing to do with it. You might have done it. In my dream of course."

"Alright then. Let's see."

I walked over to a safe area, so I wouldn't get hit by any debris. There was a loud pounding noise coming from the wall. I looked up. The wall was finally crumbling.

"What are you doing?"

"That's not me…"

The wall fell down. There was a large robot above me. It was firing lasers at me. I dodged the lasers and ran over to the pelican. I took cover. The robot was now paying attention to California. I looked at the robot, it was a UNSC robot. I hopped on top of the pelican and looked at the robot.

California jumped on top of the other wall on isolation, but it was very short. He ran as fast as he could and jumped on the robot. He was on top of it.

"Bring it over here!"

He was somehow luring the robot towards me. He pulled a grenade out of his side. I hopped back down for a second and opened up one of the boxes near me. I pulled a Spartan Laser out of the box and hopped back on top of the pelican. The robot was close to me. I ran as fast as I could and jumped over the robot. When I was near California, I started charging the laser, and I pulled the pin of his grenade. I turned around while I was in the air and shot the laser at the robot. The robot was pushed back and he hit a rock wall. He was now damaged. California ran to the robot's eye and planted the grenade on the eye. He jumped off the robot and rolled near me. The robot exploded and pieces went everywhere. Both lasers from the towers fired at once. They turned in the air and hit each other, creating a massive blue explosion. A flash of green went off.

"Did you see that?"

"That explosion. Yeah I did."

"No, the green flash."

"What green flash?"

"I'll always be with you. Even when I'm not there."

It was Delta 2.0.

"Nevermind."

The blue lasers were distress beacons.

California and I were walking towards Isolation. We went to the underground forts.

"I remember the days. Spending long nights here, just battling blues."

"This was a red and blue battlefield?"

"Yup. Sure was. Eventually they were all wiped out."

"How?"

"The big bot over there."

"What was it anyway?"

"Some Forerunner technology that the UNSC got their grubby hands on."

"Forerunner?"

"Yeah. Some race that built the Halo rings. They're not important to us, but they wipe out something called the flood."

"The flood?"

"Yeah. These things."

He popped one of the bubbles in the cave. Three infected flood came out and crawled towards him. He shot each of them with his magnum.

"Flood. Never heard of them before."

"Wow. You're behind."

A pelican was flying above. Three ODST's hopped out of the back of it, each with jetpacks. They landed in front of us.

"Give us the fucking idiot!"

"Which one?"

"That one dumbass! Florida!"

"Why do you want him?"

"He knows where Delta 2.0 is."

Everything flashed green.

"He wants me. Don't let them take me!"

"I won't."

"You won't what?"

I rolled into one of the ODST's. He fell over. Another ODST picked me up and California kicked him. I fell to the ground. I quickly hopped to my feet and stomped on the ODST that was on the ground as hard as I could. I ran up to the other ODST and punched him a few times. I grabbed his helmet and tore it off. I threw the helmet at the ODST that was on the ground. California ran up and jumped over my shoulders. He shot the ODST in the face with the Evolved Magnum. I turned around and pulled out an assault rifle. I fired at the ODST. He died. I walked over to the final ODST. I took off his helmet slowly.

A green flash.

"Spare her."

"Her?"

It was a woman. She was using a voice modifier.

"Why should I spare her?"

Another green flash.

"She knows you. Trust me."

"Fine. You, get up."

"You're letting me go?"

"Yes. What's your name?"

"Isabel."

"We can't just let her go! She'll report our location to the UNSC."

"We aren't exactly, letting her go. She's coming with us."

"What? We can't have a chick! She'll just slow us down. No offense."

"None taken."

She kneed California in the balls.

"Going down."

California fell down.

"You're a Freelancer now."

"Good. I've always wanted to be a Freelancer."

"Really? Well you're not one. What I meant was that you are part of the Freelancers. You're just a soldier, like Slash was."

"Slash?"

"He was my friend. We went through some tough times."

"Alright. Don't talk. Now what?"

"California."

"What?"

"Get up. We've got company."

"No we don't," Isabel said.

"We do now."

I threw down a UNSC distress signal. California got back up.

"They still hurt a little, but they're fine."

"Are you crazy? You'll get us killed!"

"Relax. I'm doing this to test you."

"Alright."

An ODST fell down from the sky by drop pod. He kicked open the drop pod.

"Florida? Oh man. This is gonna be one hell of a ride."

"Isabel. You know what to do."

Isabel got ready to fight, and California and I walked further back.

The battle started.

She ran up to the ODST and kneed his balls.

"Is that all she knows how to do?"

"Shut up, California. She's probably just warming up."

She kicked the ODST in the chest. He was pushed back. The ODST pulled a flamethrower out and aimed at her. She jumped over the ODST and shot him in the back with a shotgun. He fell forward. He slowly got back up. He walked towards Isabel. She spun the shotgun around, hitting him twice. Isabel threw the shotgun at the ODST and pulled his helmet off. She threw it over to me and punched him in the face a few times. I caught the helmet.

"Heh. Already like me."

She backflipped and shot the ODST's head a few times with the magnum. The ODST fell over and died.

"We could do better."

We walked over to Isabel.

"Nice work."

"You could do better Isabel."

"She's fine. She might just need some armor that better suits her body."

"Extra rooms nice but you want your suit tight."

"You just want to see her wearing a female suit don't you?"

"You do too!"

"I mean sure. She probably looks real nice but you need a comfortable suit to fight in."

"Whatever."

"Come on Isabel, we'll go get you a new suit."

"Where?"

"I'll just contact the Mother of Invention to send us up."

I tried to contact the Mother of Invention, but the communications were down there.

"Communications down."

"Now what?"

"I know this science lab, place. It's pretty close. Might have some female Spartan armor."

"Take us."

"Alright."

We followed California back over to Isolation. We went into the flood infested caves and found a hole.

"This leads to the Cold Storage. That's where some of the flood are created."

"Anybody down there?"

"Nope. It's been abandoned for years now. Let's go."

"Alright."

We hopped down the hole. When I landed, I passed out.

"What the hell? Why'd he pass out? It wasn't that long of a fall! He needs to get in shape."

"He is in shape. There's something with him where he passes out and has these crazy dreams that lead to the future normally. He'll be fine. We just gotta wait a while."

"I'll wait here, you go find that armor."

"Whatever."

California walked away. Isabel bent down and protected me.

I was in another dream. I was in Cold Storage. I looked down.

"Fucking Gamma."

I was green again. The lab was foggy. A woman screamed. I turned around. There was nothing there.

"Help me Florida!"

At least I was still Florida. I walked to the next room. There was nothing there. I turned around. California was on a ledge.

"Hey! California!"

He didn't do anything.

"California?"

Maybe he wasn't meant to do anything. I kept walking to the next room. Another scream.

"Help!"

This one was closer. I looked up, but all I could see was fog.

"Delta 2.0. Help me here. Roll out the fog."

A green flash.

"Yes sir."

The fog rolled out. I looked back up. It was Isabel, in a brown female suit. She was tangled by what looked like flood.

"Shit."

I pulled out what should have been a magnum, but what was a grappling hook.

"What is this?"

"Help!"

I shot the grappling hook at the flood, right next to Isabel. It disappeared.

"Fuck!"

"Hello again Florida."

Gamma. I ran over to catch Isabel. She vanished. The walls started to push inwards. There was a hatch on the ceiling. I ran up to one of the walls and jumped off of it. I kept wall jumping until I got to the hatch. I opened it up and pulled myself up. It was a foggy room.

A green flash.

"There."

The fog rolled out. Isabel was standing there. I slowly walked over to her. She kicked me as hard as she could. I went through the wall and landed in the Elephant at Sandtrap. I got up.

"Again?"

I looked out the Elephant. Another Elephant was driving towards this one. Gamma. I ran up to the top of the Elephant and went into the driver area. I felt my helmet. Delta was in there. I put Delta in the Elephant and he started driving. The whole place was now green. The center of Sandtrap started sinking.

"What the hell?"

The Elephants were being sucked in. I tried to run away, but a shield formed around the Elephant.

"Crap!"

The Elephant finally made its way over to the hole and fell in.

I woke up in Cold Storage again. Isabel was looking at me.

"Good. You're up."

Isabel held out her hand. I grabbed it and she pulled me up. I looked down. I was my normal colors again.

"What was the dream about?"

"California told you?"

"Yeah. He's finding some armor now."

"Well whatever happens, I'm sticking with you."

"Why?"

"California told you that the dreams sometimes lead to the future, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well in it. You had your armor."

"How'd I look?"

"Beautiful. Now anyways, you were being tangled by flood. They should break out soon."

"I can take them."

"According to my dream, you can't."

"What color was my armor?"

"Brown."

"Oh. Nice. I like it."

"Let's hurry. I have to tell California."

I didn't want to tell them about Sandtrap, because I wanted to figure out what it meant first. We walked back over to California.

"Good. You're up."

I told him about my dream. Everything except Sandtrap.

"Where'd the wall take you?"

"The dream ended there."

"Oh. Well, Isabel, I found you some armor."

"Let me see it."

A tube spun around, revealing the brown armor.

"It's even more sexy than I imagined," she said.

"That's great, I guess."

She took the armor.

"Where should I change?"

"You could change here," California suggested.

"Alright."

She was slowly taking off her suit.

"Don't get any ideas. We aren't here to fool around, we're here to…"

"Yeah yeah yeah. Whatever. Oh my god."

All she was now wearing were her undergarments.

"I didn't think she wore a crop top."

"Shut up."

She put on her suit.

"Ready."

"Let's go."

Her helmet was a Mark VI Helmet.

"Oh, California?"

"What is it?"

She kicked California in the shin. He fell over.

"You gonna kick me? I was looking."

"Yeah but you weren't drooling all over me."

"True."

We entered a big open room.

"This is it."

"What? The room where I almost get killed?"

"Until I save you. Wait. In my dream, California was unable to help."

California got back up.

"I can't walk. I'm gonna sit out here."

"There it is."

Isabel moved to the middle of the room.

"Alright Flood! Take me!"

I turned around. Behind me was a grappling hook . I took it. A loud groan was heard.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"I'm sure. If I die, tell California to fuck off."

"Will do."

A giant flood tentacle broke the glass of a pod. It grabbed Isabel. Another tentacle came out and flung her helmet off. I caught her helmet and threw it to the side.

"Florida! Help! I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Too late!"

I shot my grappling hook at the flood. I started to pull.

"Delta 2.0. I need you here!"

A green flash.

"You're strength has temporarily increased."

I pulled as hard as I could. The tentacles were moving closer. I let go of the grappling hook. It hit the tentacle. I ran up a wall and jumped on top of one of the tentacles. I pulled out a Bowie Knife.

"Where the hell did I get this?"

"Just use it!"

I stabbed one of the tentacles. It went back inside the pod, carrying the knife with it.

"Shit."

I hopped onto the other tentacle.

"Hang in there Isabel!"

"Okay! I'm gonna die!"

I pulled walked over to Isabel.

"What are you doing?"

I bent down and was reaching into one of her hard cases.

"Hey! I called dibs!"

"Shut up California! I'm getting something."

I pulled out a Evolved Magnum and walked away. I backflipped off of the tentacle and shot the pod glass. It broke and the actual flood came out. I ran up to it and beat it down. I pulled my bowie knife out of its tentacle and threw it at the tentacle holding Isabel. She was falling. I ran over and caught her.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"Lucky."

"I let Isabel down and shot the flood. He made a tiny explosion."

"Show off."

"Come on. Let's get out of here. We don't want any more flood coming."

"Fine, but next time, I get to impress the lady."

"Whatever you say California."

A green flash.

"Your strength is now back to normal."

We exited the Cold Storage. We were somewhere familiar.

"Ah shit."

Sandtrap. We had found our way to Sandtrap. I looked around. I could see Elites in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Isabel asked.

"This place has been in a few of my dreams. If everything is true, I should see the ODST, a Zealot Elite and this place should collapse."

"Collapse?"

"Yup."

"That guy again? I sent him out to space. Oh. Wait."

I looked up. Something was slowly coming down to the other side of the area. It crashed down.

"That's probably him."

"Oh you mean that ODST?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, the UNSC has his information stored on a chip. They keep making copies of him."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck."

A shadow appeared. It was the ODST.

"How'd he do that?"

"This was in my dream."

I kicked the ODST then punched him a few times. He vanished. I turned around and he reappeared. I jumped on top of him and he fell over.

"Delta 2.0, I need you now."

"Delta 2.0?"

"You should know about him. The UNSC wants him," California explained.

"I know. But. He doesn't have him."

"There's some weird thing going on where he has traces of Delta 2.0 in him."

"That's weird."

A green flash.

"Your strength has increased."

I punched through the ODST's suit. I pulled my hand out. He was breaking.

"Back, now!"

We started running away. The ODST exploded. We were pushed by the explosion, and we landed in the sand. California was right next to Isabel, while I was a little farther away.

"Hey, Isabel."

Isabel kicked California.

"Crap."

We all got up.

"I killed him, but there are probably more to come."

"That was amazing. How you punched through his armor."

"Thanks."

"Hey! What'd I say about impressing her?"

"I'm not trying to. I'm just good."

I turned around. There was a red Zealot Elite with an energy sword standing there.

"Florida."

"What do you want Elite?"

"Your life."

He vanished.

"How the fuck?"

"It doesn't matter now. Where is he?"

"I don't know."

I turned around. He appeared and hit me with his energy sword. I fell over.

"Florida!"

California ran over to me but the Elite stabbed him in the chest. He fell over. Isabel ran up and kicked the energy sword out of his hand. It landed next to me. Isabel kept kicking and punching the Elite. The Elite was finally pushed back.

"You pressed your luck girl."

He vanished and reappeared behind her. He grabbed her by the neck. I picked up the energy sword and got up.

"Move even a step closer and I swear her neck will be twisted all the way around!"

I pulled out my grappling hook and fired at Isabel. It landed behind her. I pulled the grappling hook which pulled Isabel with it. I caught Isabel.

"Looks like you should've had a tighter grip."

Isabel jumped out of my arms and the Elite ran up to me. I stabbed him in the chest with the Energy Sword. He fell over and died.

"Finally."

"Florida."

"What is it Isabel?"

"I just wanted to say. Thanks."

"No problem."

I looked down at California.

"Are you alright?"

"Not really. Might need an evac."

"We can't send you up, we need you!"

"Send him up."

"Isabel. We need him. He's a good soldier."

"Thanks."

"I'll carry you. We'll take you to that temple to fix you up."

I walked over to California and picked him up.

"Let's go."

We made our way over to the temple. There weren't any enemies in sight. Isabel opened up the temple and we walked in. We went to the furthest back room. Isabel shut the door.

"Good."

I gently set California down on the big rock.

"Let's see what we've got here."

I opened up a crate. Inside of the crate were a few medkits.

"We got company."

"Elites or Marines?"

"Both. Heretics and Marines. ODST's even."

"Here."

I tossed a medkit over to her.

"Heal him up. I'll go distract them."

"You got it. Oh by the way."

"What?"

She took off her helmet and threw it at the wall.

"What was that for?"

She took off my helmet. She kissed me quickly and threw me my helmet.

"You really know how to treat a man."

"Thanks."

"That was meant to be sarcastic."

"And so was that."

I pulled out my assault rifle and went outside.

"Put your hands up mother fucker!"

I was surrounded. Marines, ODSTs, Heretics, everywhere.

"Isabel, I think I know how to get rid of them, but it involves my dream. This is where it collapsed."

"Go for it."

"Collapse? Are you kidding me? Look at him! Thinking this thing is gonna collapse."

An earthquake started.

"Whoa!"

I didn't move. The Marines looked all around. I slowly backed up into the temple. The ground in front of me started to cave in. Marines were falling inside. Four jetpack ODSTs flew into the temple, one hit me inside also. I got up and fired at the ODST's. They all had magnums and they were firing back. I ran up to one of them and ripped off his helmet. I threw it at his head and ripped off his jetpack. I turned it on and sent it flying into another ODST. He hit the wall. I shot the roof with the grappling hook, I pulled it as hard as I could. I chunk of the ceiling fell and smashed one of the ODSTs. I ran up to another one and kicked his gut. He hit the wall and I picked him up. I threw him again. He was dead. I threw my assault rifle at the last ODST. He was pushed back. He pulled out a flamethrower. I pulled out an Evolved Magnum. I fired at his head four times, killing him. I ran back into the room California was in. I picked up California and started running. Isabel turned around and saw the hole. She followed me. I entered the mine zone. Bombs starting rising from the ground. I kept running as fast as I could. I was finally stopped by a familiar face.

I was kicked in the chest. I flew outside of the mine zone. The ground stopped caving in. I was on top of California.

"Is that Carolina?"

"I don't know. It might be."

I ran up and tried to kick Carolina. Carolina vanished.

"Fuck!"

"What?"

I was kicked from the air.

A green flash.

"Gamma is harming you too much. I have to shut the suit down."

"What? Don't!"

I was frozen.

"Florida!"

Isabel turned around. She ran up to Carolina and kicked her in the gut. Carolina flew back and Isabel pulled out her magnum. She shot at Carolina's chest. Carolina finally hit the floor. Isabel ran over to Carolina as fast as she could. She jumped on top of her and ripped off her helmet.

It wasn't Carolina.

"Who the fuck are you."

California slowly got up and re-enabled me.

"What happened Florida?"

"Delta had to shut me down."

"Fucking Delta. Shut him down."

"I can't. He isn't actually inside of me. He just left traces in there so he's still, alive."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. Delta 2.0! Do not shut down unless I tell you to!"

A green flash.

"Okay."

I walked over to Isabel. California slowly followed.

"Seriously? You dressed up as Carolina so we wouldn't know who you were."

He pushed Isabel off of him and punched me in the gut.

"Is that Maine?" California asked.

"Yes…"

Maine ran up to California and kicked him in the gut as hard as he could. He was sent flying. I silently walked up behind Maine and reached onto his back.

"Thought you could hide this with cloaking?"

I pulled the Brute Shot off of his back. I tried to stab him with it, but he grabbed it first. He pulled it out of my hands and rolled backwards. He got up and shot me with the Brute Shot.

"Shit."

I started to run towards Isabel.

"Why is Maine trying to kill you?"

"Something went wrong with him. He's not like he used to be."

Maine reloaded his Brute Shot and put it on his back. I started to throw a grenade, put Maine threw a bubble shield at us. When the bubble shield hit, I had already thrown the grenade. It was in the bubble. Isabel and I ran out of the bubble.

"You could take whole armies of Spartans, but you can't take this?"

"He's too strong."

Maine pulled out a strange looking device and slowly walked up to me.

"What's that?"

"Oh fuck."

"How did you get your hands on that?"

Maine just grumbled. He was still unable to speak.

"What is it?"

"It's the epsilon unit."

"What's that?"

"I'll explain to you later."

I kept backing up. Maine ran up to me and I jumped over him. I grabbed his brute shot and pulled it away. I fired at Maine. He kept getting pushed back. He put the epsilon unit on his back and pulled out a magnum. He fired at my hand. I dropped the brute shot. It recloaked. I looked all around for it, but I couldn't find it in the sand. I ran up to Maine and jumped over him again, this time grabbing the epsilon unit. I stuck the needle out.

"I'll finish you right here, Maine."

I ran up to Maine and stabbed his head with the epsilon unit. He was dead.

"Thank god."

My vision was going blurry. I fell over and fainted.

California finally got up and limped over to me, Isabel slowly walked over to me as well.

"You think he's having another dream?"

"Probably."

"What should we do?"

"I don't know. I'll carry Florida."

"Got it. What exactly is the epsilon unit."

"It's some A.I. thing. You probably wouldn't understand."

"Are you kidding me. Look up to the sky right now."

California looked up. Explosions could be seen. The Father of Destruction was still attacking the Mother of Invention.

"Ah shit. Thanks for reminding me. We have to somehow get up there again."

"The UNSC thrives on A.I.'s! That whole battle is for Delta 2.0."

"I know. Where do you think we should go?

"I don't know."

They stood there for a while. California could see a floating temple in the distance. He picked me up and hung me over his shoulder.

"Come on. We're heading for that temple."

He started to walk towards the temple. Isabel followed.

I was now in the Father of Destruction. I was in the control room of the ship. It was all empty. The others weren't with me. I looked around. Once again, I was green. I was expecting it this time around. I tried to see how to take out the ship. I went over to missile control. The missile control was targeted at the Mother of Invention. I changed the targeting to the Mother of Invention, so now the missiles were firing and hitting the ship that sent them out. I slowly walked out of the room. There weren't any Marines there. Not even a pilot. I kept walking. The ship shook. I had to get out of there fast. The ship would explode with me on it if I didn't. I turned around. Marines were trying to get into safety, to the Mother of Invention. I started to run the same direction they were running in.

"There he is!"

They shot at me. I was hardly getting hurt.

"For once a dream is going well."

A flood meteor crashed into the hallway I was about to walk into. Flood were crawling around, all over the meteor. I started to back up. I pulled out the grappling hook out and shot it at a conference room window. The glass broke and I flew up to the room. I rolled in and shot a few Marines that were trying to escape. I looked out the window. Flood were attacking the UNSC. I jumped out the window and rolled behind a Marine. I took the shotgun off his back when I rolled behind him and aimed at the flood. I started to fire. I kept firing at them. An ODST came up behind me and tried to stick a knife in my back. I kicked his chest, pushing him far back. I shot the grappling hook at him again and pulled him back towards me, I then shot him with my shotgun. This was a different dream. Everything was going well.

"Gamma must be clearing up."

Everything was going well, until the worst of the worst came. A giant flood meteor crashed right in front of me. I was pushed backwards. I got right back up and stared at the meteor. The meteor finally exploded, releasing a Flood Juggernaut species. It was huge. I started to run away from it.

"It's just a dream. This explosion will just end it, not hurt me at all."

I went back into the control room and looked around. There was a closet. I kicked open the door. There was a machine gun turret and a missile pod in the closet. I grabbed the missile pod and slowly walked back outside. I aimed at the Juggernaut.

"Hey flood!"

It turned around and looked at me.

"Eat rockets!"

I fired all the rockets at the Juggernaut and threw the pod at his face. The rockets hurt him a lot and pushed him back. The pod hit his face, but did no significant damage. I ran up to the flood. The ship shook again, but this time it was so bad that I fell over. I tried to get back up, but the ship exploded, ending my dream. My wake up was California throwing me onto the ground.

"Good, you're up."

I quickly got up. We were at a weird looking temple. It almost looked familiar.

"Where are we?"

California put his arm around me.

"Welcome to Epitaph!"

Epitaph.

I turned around and walked inside. I looked at the library full of A.I.'s and information about A.I.'s.

"I'm going down there."

I hopped down the ledge and walked over to the library. Isabel hopped down and followed me, but California stayed up top. I walked over to the D section.

"Delta, Delta, ah Delta 2.0."

I pulled out an information book on Delta 2.0.

"Upsilon."

"Upsilon?"

"Yup. Looks like the people who created Delta 2.0 finally decided on a name. Upsilon."

"What's that for?"

"Probably U. Upsilon for U."

"Oh."

"Come on."

I closed the book of information on Upsilon. I put the book on my side. I walked over to the stairs to get back up. The gravity lifts weren't working. Isabel followed me. California was waiting. He was holding what looked like a smoke grenade.

"What's that for?"

"We're getting out of here. Back to take out the Father of Destruction."

"Really?"

"Yup. Found this on Maine. Thought I'd take it."

I looked at the epsilon unit again.

"Throw it. We'll go back up."

California threw the smoke. A green smokescreen came out of the grenade. I looked up. A pelican was inbound.

"Finally."

The pelican landed and opened up.

"Florida? We gave that to Maine."

"Yeah well Maine went rouge."

We all got in the pelican.

"Where is he?"

I showed the pilot the epsilon unit.

"You put him in there?"

"Had to."

"The Director is gonna be pissed."

"Whatever. Get us to the Father of Destruction."

"Got it."

The pelican took off. I could see the Father of Destruction winning the battle against the Mother of Invention.

"Looks like you'll be making history here," Isabel said to me as she put her hand on my shoulder.

"Yup. Looks like I will be. My dream told me how to take it out too."

"Whatever you want to do."

She walked back over to the seats and sat down. I kept staring at the battle.

The pelican landed in an empty UNSC hangar. Isabel, California and I hopped off.

"We're here. You might wanna leave, don't want to attract any attention."

"Got it."

The pelican took off.

"Where should we go?"

"To the control room. We just have to get the ships missiles to fire at itself. You think you two can make it?"

"I can."

"So can I."

"Good. Then let's get moving."

We ran towards the hallway up ahead. I stopped on the wall.

"We need to distract them. There are two ways into the control room. You two go right and find one way. I'll go left and take the other way."

"Got it."

"Wait for them to pass."

Two Marines were walking down the hallway. They passed the doors. Isabel and California both snuck out and assassinated them with their knives. I went to the left. I slowly ran down the hallway. It was a very long hallway, but there were no enemies in the way. Most of the Marines were off fighting in the Mother of Invention. I finally got to a point where the hallway took a turn. I hid on the wall and looked down the hall. There were two Marines walking the direction I was going in. I slowly ran up to them and grabbed one of them. The other turned around. I threw one Marine at the other, killing them both. I kept running down the hall.

A green flash.

"Left."

I looked to my left. There was another hallway. I went there. I stayed on the wall to see why I couldn't keep going straight. An ODST with a missile pod walked past the hallway. I snuck up behind him and tried to assassinate him, but he turned around and kicked me. I flew over to the end of the hallway. I looked to my left. There were two Marines. I pulled out my Evolved Magnum and fired at both of them, killing them. The ODST walked up to me.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now!"

"Because this."

I kicked the Marines helmet off and jumped off the wall. I landed on him and grabbed his missile pod. I jumped off of him and fired a missile at him. He was dead.

"So much for going in quiet."

An alarm started blaring. I ran down the hallway again and took a sharp left turn. Three Marines were firing battle rifles at me. I kicked one of them in the balls and grabbed his battle rifle. I kicked the other two into the walls and spun around, shooting with the battle rifle. I kept running down the hallway, holding the battle rifle. I got to a large room. There was nobody in there.

"Just like the dream."

I ran into the control room. Isabel and California were in there already.

"Good you two are already here."

I went over to missile control and locked it onto itself, the Father of Destruction.

"Let's go."

The ship started to shake. Isabel, California and I ran outside of the room. We looked around. A few Marines were running towards the hallway to get to the Mother of Invention. I shot at all of them. We walked over to them. A flood meteor crashed into the hallway.

"Again?"

Some small flood crawled out. I shot at them.

"What the fuck?" Isabel asked.

California was standing in the middle of the room.

"California, get off that spot!"

"Why?"

The flood Juggernaut meteor struck down on California, killing him.

"Fuck! Why?"

The meteor exploded, releasing the Juggernaut.

"Isabel, run back into the control room and go into the closet. Throw me the missile pod, you can take the turret."

"Got it."

Isabel ran towards the control room. The ship shook again. I started to fire at the Juggernaut. I turned over to look at Isabel. Isabel threw the missile pod to me and ran back outside.

"Now!"

Isabel fired the turret at the Juggernaut's head. I fired all the missiles in the missile pod at his head. I then threw the pod at his head. He was killed. Isabel dropped the turret and we both ran out to the hallway. We both hopped over the meteor. A missile shot right through the glass windows on both sides of the hallway. The empty space started to suck us through. I opened up my tactical case.

"I haven't used this in a long time."

I pulled out the old armor ability that let me run super fast to escape the prison. I put it on and told Isabel to hold on tight. She grabbed me and I ran as fast as I could. The doors to the Mother of Invention were closing. We barely made it through the doors. The Mother of Invention was branching off of the Father of Destruction. I stopped running. I looked through one of the windows, I was looking at the Father of Invention. It slowly was destroying itself. I stood there for about two minutes, until finally, the ship exploded. Pieces collapsed down to Earth, most of them catching on fire. I saw the impact of major pieces on Earth. I turned around. The Director was standing right behind me.

"I have a feeling we won't be hearing from the UNSC for a long time now."

I turned around and watched California's corpse endlessly fall. I turned back around.

"Same with me. Do you think we're done sir?"

"No Florida. I think we're just getting started."

They fall in line

One at a time

Ready to play

I can't see them anyway

No time to lose

We've got to move

Steady your hand

I am losing sight again

Fire your guns

Its time to run

Blow me away

I will stay unless I may

After the fall

We'll shake it off

Show me the way

Only the strongest will survive

Lead me to heaven when we die

I have a shadow on the wall

I'll be the one to save us all

There's nothing left

So save your breath

Lying and wait

Caught inside this tidal wave

You're covers blown

Nowhere to go

Holding your fate

Knowing that I will walk alone

Fire your guns

Its time to run

Blow me away

I will stay unless I may

After the fall

We'll shake it off

Show me the way

Only the strongest will survive

Lead me to heaven when we die

I have a shadow on the wall

I'll be the one to save us all

You wanted it back

Only the strongest will survive

Lead me to heaven when we die

I have a shadow on the wall

I'll be the one to save us all

Save us all

-Blow Me Away


	6. Side Chapter: Back to the Past

I was alone. Alone in the swamp. I held my Assault Rifle tight. Really tight. I slowly walked through the trees, bushing branches aside as I moved. Another loud roar came. Louder than before. I turned around to find nothing. I quickly turned the flashlight on. I turned back around and kept going, slowly and quietly. I heard what small noises up ahead, so I ran up and put my back up against a tree. I looked over the tree and saw two small creatures making strange sounds. They were right in front of a very well lit building. They ran inside. I slowly followed, checking my six every once and a while. I entered the lit up building. Inside were many different arrows pointing to a blue gravity lift.

"I think I may have found the right place."

The two creatures turned around and stared at me. One of them ran back into the gravity lift, while the other jumped onto my helmet, digging his sharp claws deep into my visor. I pulled him away and threw him at the wall. I finished him off with my trusty Assault Rifle. I put the Assault Rifle on my back and ran up to the gravity lift. I pulled out my magnum and leaned sideways as I went up. When I got a first glance into the room, I immediately swept the room with my magnum, shooting all of the hostiles. They were all creatures. I landed on my feet and put the magnum on my side. There was nowhere else to go. I walked up to the edge of the room. There was a sniper rifle laying on the wall. I picked it up and zoomed in on Nevada. He was walking through the swamp. I put the sniper rifle on my back and turned around, looking up. There was an air vent there. I pulled my magnum out quickly and shot around the air vent cover, dropping it to the floor. I climbed up and through the air vent, until I arrived in another room. This room was darker. It was lit up only by dark blue lights. There was a broken bridge connecting the two sides of the room together. Underneath the shaky bridge was what seemed to be an endless plummet to death. I walked over to the edge and hoped for the best. I carefully took three steps across the bridge. The bridge cracked, so I immediately took two more steps. I stayed in that spot for a second. I took a second to breathe in. Once I took a deep breath, I carefully took the rest of the steps across the bridge. I rolled out onto the other side, safe and sound. I heard a deep rumble and turned around quickly. I heard more screeches, screeches from those creatures. I pulled out my Assault Rifle and aimed at the other side, ready for a fight.

The Flood. The creatures that came out of the other side was actually a lot of flood in the infected form. I fired my Assault Rifle at as many as I could, up until the electric bridge turned on. The Flood were getting closer to the bridge. I turned around, wondering how the bridge was turned on. Up near the control panel was an Elite. The Elite was holding a plasma rifle. He then ran back into the hallway. I placed my Assault Rifle back on my back and ran up the staircase. I turned the corner and the Elite started to shoot at me with his Plasma Rifle. I tackled the Elite, and he dropped his weapon. I slapped the Elite twice as hard as I could. I then got up quickly and dove onto the plasma rifle, quickly turning around to shoot the downed Elite. I killed him. I ran to the control center. The Flood were now on the bridge. I deactivated the bridge and waited. Most of the flood fell into the deep pit, but some of them got onto my side. I slid down the incline that led down to the ground, killing the remaining Flood as I did so. I ran up the hallway on my side, where I found an abandoned Warthog. I hopped in and turned the keys, which happened to already be in the Warthog. The Warthog started up immediately and I drove out of the hallway.

Outside of the hallway was beautiful. It was day time now, and I was driving up a green pasture. There were mountains around me, it was just all so beautiful. I arrived at an outpost, where I found a squad of soldiers that were abandoned. I hopped out of my Warthog and walked up to the squad leader.

"You a Freelancer?"

"Yes sir."  
>"Thank god. We needed some help. Looks like the Covenant are here trying to kill us."<p>

"What?"

"Yeah. Elites, Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, and worst of all, that Zealot."

"Zealot?"

"Yeah. He seemed to disappear, with a black shadow."

"What the hell? That's not right."

A black shadow appeared. Out of the shadow came a Red Zealot holding an Energy Sword. The Zealot slashed a hole in the air. It began to suck in loose objects and guns.

"Hello Florida. Remember me?"  
>"Why would I remember you?"<p>

"Huh? Oh, you're Florida from the past, aren't you?"  
>"What are you talking about?"<p>

The Zealot slashed another hole in the air. Out of the hole came another Agent Florida.

"God damn it!"

"Who the fuck is that?"

"This is you, from the future."  
>"What? That's not possible!"<br>"I can't take two Florida's, so I guess you'll have to go."

The Zealot made the first hole bigger. It sucked the past version of Florida in it, along with the rest of the squad.

"So Florida, what are you gonna do now?"  
>I got up, not knowing what happened.<p>

"Upsilon, what the fuck is happening this time?"

The Zealot closed the two holes up so I couldn't try to escape. I got up. The Red Zealot stared at me, he looked as if he was tired, as he was panting. I was panting myself.

"You. Why did you bring me here?"  
>"I have a purpose in your life. That purpose is to destroy you. If fighting you simply isn't enough, then I'll leave you here in the past."<p>

"People will notice I'm gone."  
>"Yes, but maybe they won't if the past version of you is killed."<br>"You wouldn't."  
>"But I can. I can open up a portal to the past version of you right now. I can kill him, and you would be deleted from history."<p>

"Won't I be altering the future if I do any sort of action?"  
>"That's what you must be careful about. You'll disrupt the future. There is only one way to do whatever you want in the past and not alter the future, and that is to pull the undo lever."<br>"Where is that?"

"Like I'd tell you. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got the Covenant to be king of."  
>"So, you're the king of the Covenant?"<br>"In the past I am. I'm staying in here with you for a while."

I ran towards the Zealot, but he quickly opened up a portal, hopped through and closed it up. I fell right on the floor, face first. A Covenant Spirit was flying in.

"God damn it!"  
>"Hello Florida. Sorry I have been inactive, but I was dealing with, certain situations."<br>"Hey Upsilon, research some info on the time traveling sword that Red Zealot's got."  
>"Yes, Florida. I will be inactive while I am researching."<p>

"That's fine."

I walked over to the wall and picked up what looked like a battle rifle, but actually fired only one single shot.

"Damn it, DMR's."

I walked over to the edge of the outpost. The Spirit dropped off four Hunters, each coming towards the outpost.

"Shit."

"Oh, one more thing."

I turned around. The Zealot had opened up another portal and returned. The Zealot kicked me off the outpost and entered the portal again. He closed it as he got out on the other side. I landed on my back all the way on the ground. I looked up. The four Hunters saw me and were heading my way. I hopped up and pulled out a shotgun.

"Shit."

The four Hunters charged up at me. I jumped at the last second, sending two Hunters into the wall, and then the other two into the first two Hunters. I flipped over and shot at the back two Hunters a few times in the backs. They fell over and died. The front two Hunters got their heads out of the wall and turned around. They aimed their guns at me.

"Ah shit."

The two Hunters fired at the same time, and I barely jumped out of the way, landing on my stomach. I pulled out my DMR and shot one of the Hunters in the head until he died. The last Hunter charged up at me and I slid under him, sending him into a mountain. I quickly got up and ran up the mountain. I pulled out a bomb and planted it at the top of the mountain. I jumped off of the mountain and rolled safely on the ground. Once I reached the ground, I activated a switch which exploded the mountain. Giant boulders landed on the Hunter, killing him. I turned around and put my guns on my back. On the ground was a map.

"What's this?"  
>I picked up the map. The map showed a trail. The trail led to a picture of an energy sword.<p>

"An energy sword. Maybe this will teleport me like his does."

"Research complete."  
>Upsilon had finished reasearching the teleporting energy sword.<br>"It's okay Upsilon. I don't need any extra information. This must be where the Zealot first got his Energy Sword, meaning it's still there and I may be able to beat him to it. Upsilon, scan this map."  
>"Scanning."<br>A blue light came out of my helmet. Upsilon scanned the map and it was now on my HUD.

"Thanks."  
>"You're welcome master."<p>

I took a rocket launcher off the side of the outpost and put it on my back.

"This would've been useful earlier."

I found a mongoose sitting in front of me. I hopped on and drove off to follow the trail. The trail first led me into a forest. I was driving through the forest like the map told me to, until the Zealot showed up. He slashed a hole through the air and I appeared back at the outpost. I kept driving in loops until I was going super fast. The Zealot then closed up the hole and I kept going, unready for the upcoming turn. I almost crashed into a tree. Another portal opened up ahead of me. Out came a ghost with a Zealot on it. The Zealot turned the ghost sideways but was still going as fast as I was. He began to fire at me. I pulled my rocket launcher out and fired at him. He slashed another portal through the air and the rocket was looping back from the launcher barrel and the portal. Eventually, the Zealot opened up another hole and closed the loop one. He exited through the last portal and closed it. The rocket hit a tree, and the tree fell right in front of me. The mongoose crashed and I was sent flying. I landed in front of a familiar face.

"God damnit! Again?"

The ODST kicked me into a tree. The tree crashed down and I went with it. The ODST pulled his flamethrower off of his back and fired at the trees in the forest. The forest was on fire. The ODST threw his flamethrower on the ground and started to run away, trying to get away from the fire. I got up from the ground. Everything on me was on fire.

"Upsilon, activate speed enhancement."  
>"Speed enhancement activated."<p>

I charged up for about two minutes. By the time I was finished charging, I was on fire. I broke the charge and sprinted as fast as I could across the forest. I kept going until I was ahead of the ODST. I tripped the ODST, and he fell over. He was now on fire. He got up and began to jump around, trying to get the fire off of him. I kept running through the forest until I got out safely. I stopped running and walked up a hill. On the other side of the hill was a garage filled with Mongooses and Warthogs. I slowly walked inside the garage and went over to the counter. On the other side of the counter was a drunk man who was holding a bottle of beer. He took a shot of it every minute or so.

"Hey man. You here to buy a, a…"

"Warthog? Mongoose?"  
>"Yeah sure."<br>"How much you want for one?"  
>"For what?"<br>"How much do you want for a Warthog or a Mongoose?"  
>"What are those?"<br>"You know what? I'll make an offer."  
>I dug into my tactical pouch for some money. I only had five dollars and some loose change. I pulled out the five dollars.<p>

"Here. Five bucks for a Mongoose."  
>"Deal."<br>The man swiped the five dollars from my hands and threw me the keys. I got on the Mongoose that the keys were designated to and drove off.

I drove down the road, as I saw an armory down the road. I kept driving as fast as I could. Behind me was another mongoose, which quickly turned into a ghost, carrying the Zealot elite. The Zealot tried to slash my mongoose at the end, but was too far away to successfully hit it. He got on top of his still moving ghost and got ready to leap onto my mongoose.

"How the hell is he doing that?"

The Zealot jumped on top of my mongoose and almost slashed me, but I dodged the sword by jumping in front of the mongoose. I rolled off to the side afterwards and the Zealot opened up a portal which he jumped through. My mongoose and the ghost crashed into the armory up ahead. Behind me came the red Zealot.

"You think that you can get out. Do you really think so?"

"I don't think, I know I can get out."  
>"And how do you know this, Florida? I have every power imaginable. I have the power to bring other enemies from the past, like O'Mally, or even Maine. Maybe I should bring back someone that you would despise. You would have to kill him, but he'd be expecting it this time.<p>

"Who?"  
>"You'll see. You'll see in just a few moments."<p>

The Zealot disappeared. I stood there for a moment, thinking of who the bastard would bring back. I finally gave up on guessing and entered the armory. Inside the armory was millions of weapons. I took more ammo for the shotgun and got a rocket launcher as well. I put one SMG on my left leg and a Magnum on my right. I picked up a small little device which I knew could stop all the madness.

"This'll be fun."  
>I walked outside the armory and immediately saw the Zealot standing there.<p>

"I've got him."  
>"Who is it Zealot?"<br>"He's coming through now."

The Zealot slashed open another portal for the enemy. I stood there in awe.

"Florida. Meet your old friend, Sam Slash."

"Nice work Zealot. At what point in time did you grab him from?"

"You two were fighting some UNSC troopers, why?"  
>"You idiot. Come on Slash. I'll take this."<p>

I pulled out the small device. It looked like a tiny button. I aimed it at the Zealot.

"What's that gonna do? Shoot some string at me?"

I pressed the button and it turned into an anti-gravity lift. It sucked the Zealot's energy sword back and I caught it with my hand.

"What?"

"Now I've got your so called super powers. Now, I'll use this to get back into the present."

"Are you sure you want to leave now? I'll just head for the Energy Sword here and do this all over again. It'll be a piece of cake."  
>"Well then I'll kill you first."<br>"Not if you can't get to me."

The Elite pointed at me, expecting Slash to attack. What the Zealot didn't know was that he grabbed Slash at a point in time where we were working together.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. He's working with me. You grabbed him at the wrong point in time. I also forgot that I have to pull that lever to get out."

The Zealot ran up to me. I readied my energy sword. The Zealot pulled out another energy sword, but this one didn't allow him to teleport like the other one. Slash pulled out his combat knife and grabbed the Zealot by the arm. He spun him around and tried to grab the sword. The Zealot pushed him back and tried to slash him with the sword, but Slash quickly recovered from the push and blocked the energy sword hit. Slash kicked the Zealot in the face, pushing him back into me. I stabbed the Zealot in the back. He was now laying against me.

"Now what? Are you just going to leave?"  
>"Nope. We'll head to that lever, then we'll leave."<p>

"Could this really be the end? Betrayed by my own soldier."  
>"I'm not your soldier."<p>

Slash walked up to the Elite and took his helmet off.

"Why?"  
>Slash stabbed the Elite in the forehead with his combat knife. I let the Zealot down gently, and then pulled the knife out for Slash.<p>

"Now we shouldn't have to big of a problem with getting to that lever."  
>"Yeah."<br>"I missed you Slash."  
>"What are you talking about? We were just fighting some soldiers and then we teleported here."<br>"It's a long story. You don't want to know it."  
>"Okay."<br>We hopped in a Warthog and drove off, towards the lever.

We kept driving down the road until we reached an outpost filled with UNSC ODSTs.

"Damn it, UNSC. Let's take em out."

"Relax Slash, they're with us now."  
>I drove onto the outpost and almost hit an ODST. Slash and I hopped out. I put my weapons away, but Slash kept his Battle Rifle out just in case the UNSC attacked him. I entered the outpost, looking for the lever.<p>

"Do you really think the lever is in here?"  
>"I know it's in here. I've heard stories about it."<br>"From who?"  
>"Some wise people. You wouldn't know them."<p>

We entered a lit up room with a large staircase. Up the staircase was the lever.

"There it is. The lever to end this all."  
>"Well then, are you gonna pull it?"<br>"Yeah. I am. Come on, let's go pull it before something strange happens."  
>"By the way, why do you want to pull the lever so bad?"<br>"Like I said, you wouldn't understand."  
>We both walked up the large staircase, passing the teleporting energy sword.<p>

"There's the teleporting energy sword. That means that the past version of that Zealot could be here any minute. Let's hurry up."

We finally got to the top of the stairs. I placed my hand over the lever, as happy as I could be.

"It was nice to see you again Slash, but now I have to go."  
>"Where?"<br>"Back to my time. Back to the present."  
>"Wait, what?"<br>"I knew you wouldn't get it."  
>I pulled the lever down, expecting to return to my time. A wall next to me opened up instead.<p>

"What the heck?"  
>I looked down the dark hallway. Inside the hallway was a large figure. Behind him was another lever.<p>

"That lever has to be it, but who's that?"  
>A large ODST walked out from the hallway. He was holding his flamethrower like before.<p>

"Once again, this guy."  
>"I know this guy too."<br>The ODST aimed the flamethrower at me.

"Shit."  
>The building rumbled and we fell down.<p>

"What the heck was that?"  
>We quickly got up and ignored the noise. We were about to fight.<p>

The ODST fired at Slash first, sending him back into a wall. I ran up and kicked the flamethrower out of the ODST's hand. He grabbed me and threw me straight down to the ground. It hurt a lot. I sat there for a little and then held up a shotgun. Slash ran up and picked up the shotgun. He hopped over the ODST's head, confusing him, and then immediately turned around and shot the ODST in the back three times. The ODST fell over, dead.

"I remember him. How did we run into him again?"  
>"I guess you'll find out soon, huh?"<br>I got up slowly. Slash was right next to the lever, but I was turned towards the sword.

"What are you doing? I thought that you wanted to pull the lever."

"I do, but the swords gone."  
>The sword was missing from its place. Slash walked up beside me to take a look himself.<p>

"What the hell?"  
>A portal opened up behind us. It was too late. We let the Zealot get the sword. We both turned around quickly. Standing before us was the past version of the Red Zealot.<p>

"What the heck? I thought we killed this guy!"  
>"We killed the future form of him. This is the past form that got the energy sword in the first place."<p>

"What?"  
>"Nevermind. Just kill him!"<br>Slash and I both ran up to the Zealot with our combat knives. The Elite hopped back through the teleporter and closed it up immediately. We stopped ourselves and turned back around.

"Still got that anti-gravity lift?"  
>"Yeah, but I won't need that yet. Besides, it's got to recharge or something. Here…"<br>I pulled out the anti-gravity lift device and handed it to Slash.

"Throw it to me when it's ready."  
>"Got ya."<br>I pulled out the future version of the teleporting energy sword.

"Wait, if this is the same exact sword, but just from a different time period, then…"  
>The Zealot opened up a portal. He was about to step through it, but I immediately closed it up.<p>

"What? How did you do that?"  
>"Why would I tell you? A magician never tells anyone his secrets."<br>I opened a portal of my own and walked through it, stabbing the Red Zealot along the way. He bent over, hurt. I pulled the sword out of his gut and pushed him down to the ground. The building shook again, sending us to the ground once more.

"Okay, what the fuck is that?"  
>"I don't know."<br>Suddenly, the roof opened up and staring down upon us was a large Forerunner robot.

"The Red Zealot called for assistance."  
>"I never called for anything."<br>"It must have been the future version of the Zealot."  
>"What? A future version of me?"<br>"Yes. We have to work together now if we plan to stop this thing!"  
>"What? You're crazy!"<br>"Just do it! It'll wipe us all out if we don't!"  
>The Red Zealot stared at me for a moment. He then finally came up with a reply.<p>

"Alright, fine."  
>We all looked at the Forerunner robot as it charged up a laser.<p>

I rolled out of the robot's line of fire right as the laser shot out. The robot lowered down into the building and grabbed the Red Zealot.

"Scanning."  
>"Come on Florida, let's kick this things ass!"<p>

Slash jumped on top of the robot and stood there for a second. He planted a grenade into the eye of the robot. It was confused. I jumped across the robot and fired a rocket at the robots eye right as the grenade exploded. The robot was crashing down. It let go of the Zealot and crashed into the side of the building. The robot had torn apart the entire base and we were now sitting in a large hole underground. The Red Zealot slowly got up, along with Slash and I. We all stared at each other.

"That was awesome!"

"I remember that tactic, though it wasn't with you Slash, it was with someone else."

"Who was it?"  
>"Agent California. He's dead now."<br>"How'd he die?"  
>"Enough talk, fools!"<p>

The elite stood there with a gravity hammer in his hands.

"Hey, truce? We killed that thing! Besides, we just want to get out of here!"  
>"No! No truce! That thing was with me! Remember it said the Red Zealot called for it?"<br>"Yeah, but that Red Zealot isn't you, it's a different one, remember?"  
>"Yes, but it thought I was him. I was on his side!"<br>"God damn it!"  
>"Now, you'll pay for destroying that expensive piece of equipment!"<br>The elite backed up slowly and readied his gravity hammer. I pulled out my teleporting energy sword and opened up a portal. The elite had fallen through the back of the portal and landed right in front of me. I stepped on his arm and handed my energy sword to Slash. I grabbed his gravity hammer and yanked it out of his hands. He tried to grab my foot with his other arm, but I butted him in the head with the bottom of the gravity hammer. Slash put the energy sword in his pocket and picked up the Zealot Elite. He walked back far.

"Pitch him to me."  
>Slash threw the Red Zealot straight at me. I swung the gravity hammer as hard as I could and hit him square in the chest. It sent him flying out of the hole, eventually killing him.<p>

"That one's out of the park."  
>I put the gravity hammer down and walked up to the lever that would reset everything.<p>

"Well, this is it Slash."  
>"What do you mean? I'll see you in a few minutes, won't I?"<br>"You'll see me. But I won't see you."  
>"What?"<br>"I already told you I'm from the future, didn't I?"  
>"Oh, yeah."<br>"You're going to forget all this ever happened because you won't be touching the lever, but I'll remember."  
>"I want to remember though."<br>"No. You can't. It'll ruin the future and the past. You'll just return back and you won't even know that you ever left."  
>"Fine."<br>"Thank you."  
>I pulled the lever and saw a white flash. I was back.<p>

The white flash was gone. I was on my bed. Nothing had happened. I could remember everything, but nobody else knew about it. I got up from my bed slowly.

"Upsilon?"  
>"Yes?"<br>"Nothing."  
>I was glad to hear Upsilon once again. I exited my room and entered the conference room.<p>

"Still no sign of the UNSC?"

"No."

The Director was the one to reply. He turned around and looked at me. He kept talking.

"There is another threat somewhere down on Earth. Old Mombasa."  
>"Old Mombasa?"<br>"Yes."  
>"Do you know what the threat is?"<br>"No. We do know that they have taken some Covenant forces down, as they have a few Scarab units."

"Just great."  
>"So, are you ready?"<br>"Already?"  
>"We don't want to risk anything happening to the rest of the planet. Do what you must to stop this threat."<br>"But right now?"  
>"Yes."<br>"Alright. Who's coming with me?"  
>"Isabel is a little injured at the moment while she was protecting New Mombasa. She won't be coming."<br>"Yeah, and California's dead."  
>"So, I guess you'll be going alone on this, for now. We may be able to send Isabel down eventually."<p>

"Okay. I will head out now."  
>"Good."<br>I exited the conference room and took a Battle Rifle and an Assault Rifle off of one of the walls. I entered a drop pod and took off, down towards Old Mombasa.


	7. Chapter 5: Insurrection I

Drop.

I dropped down to Old Mombasa. A battlefield during the Human-Covenant war. What could this new threat be? I kicked open the door to the drop pod. I was there. Right in front of a small building with a turret behind me. There were some alleyways down the road. I slowly entered the building and walked up to the very top. I found a sniper rifle and put it on my back. I could hear someone talking very loudly. I ducked down behind a wall and peeked over the corner. The door across my building was being opened up. It slammed open, and behind it were four soldiers. They looked like UNSC marines. What could they be? I pulled out my sniper rifle and sniped one of the soldiers. They all pulled out their battle rifles and aimed around the area, to try to find out who had shot.

"Only one shot?"

I threw the sniper rifle on the ground and pulled out my assault rifle.

"Ready."  
>I jumped off of the building. The three remaining soldiers looked up at me and were ready to fire. I landed on top of one soldier and rolled into another. I shot at the two I had crashed into and killed them. One of the soldiers came up behind me and put a combat knife right up around my neck. I ducked right under and grabbed the knife. I pulled it away from him and spun around quickly, slashing his neck along the way. The last soldier jumped on my back. I threw him off of me and threw the knife. It broke his visor and killed him. I looked around. A dropship dropped off ten more soldiers. I threw a plasma grenade into the pile of soldiers. Most of the soldiers rolled out of the pile, but three of them were killed by the grenade. I fired at two of the survivors with my battle rifle and killed them. I was out of ammo for my battle rifle, so I threw it at another soldier. I pulled my assault rifle back out and ran up to the four standing soldiers. I shot at the one on the ground and kicked two soldiers at the same time. I shot at another soldier and threw his body at another. I placed a plasma grenade on each of the remaining survivors, which killed them.<p>

"Nice work."  
>I put my assault rifle on my back and walked down the road.<p>

The road led down to a brigade. A Covenant brigade? There were two Wraiths and three ghosts. They all turned to face me. Two ghosts charged up at me. I jumped over one of the ghosts and landed right on the other one. They weren't Covenant, they were more of those soldiers. I kicked the soldier out of the second ghost and hopped in. The first ghost turned around and charged towards me. I charged towards it as well. I hopped out of the ghost right before they crashed into each other, causing them to explode. I landed on the soldier who I kicked out of a ghost. I shot him with my pistol twice, killing him. The last ghost came up and I punched down to the ground, activating armor lock. The ghost exploded. I released armor lock and looked at the two Wraiths. I looked up at the rooftops. Three snipers had come out and were lying there, aiming at me. I ran as quickly as possible towards the Wraiths, managing to dodge the sniper shots along the way. As I ran past the Wraith's a planted a grenade in one of them. It exploded, and then there was only one Wraith. I entered a building and slammed the door shut.

The building was old and damaged. As I walked up the stairs, I felt like the building could collapse due to a Spartans weight. When I got up to the top floor, I saw a soldier with a sniper rifle looking around. I could hear the Wraith driver communicating with him.

"He's in your building. Turn around!"

But it was too late. I had already put a gun to his head. He begged for mercy, but I didn't show any. I shot him on the spot and took his sniper rifle. The Wraith driver exited the Wraith and I shot him as soon as he was visible, killing him. I hopped out the window with the sniper rifle in my hands. I landed on the Wraith.

I looked back up at the rooftops. The soldiers were beginning to aim at me again. I shot at two of them and hopped over the Wraith to avoid a shot. I shot the last sniper, and he fell off the building and landed next to me. I bent over to see if he had any ID on him. He did.

"Official Insurrectionist ID"

"Insurrection."

I threw the ID on the ground. I put the sniper rifle on my back.

"The UNSC should be in control of Old Mombasa, not the Insurrection."

I looked over at the Wraith. It was still in good shape. I walked over to it and hopped in. It started up quickly, and I drove down the road some more. I kept driving for quite a while until I reached a section of land. At this section of land was a battle. A battle between the UNSC and the Insurrection. I exited the Wraith and ran across the battle field to take cover. I was now on the UNSC side. One of the UNSC soldiers fired a rocket at the Wraith, blowing it up. A UNSC Commander told me to get inside the building and he followed me in. He put his shotgun on his back.

"Orders used to be for me to kill you. Now that we're not at war, I don't have to try. What can I do for you?"  
>"I would normally try to kill you also, but I think we can work together to defeat the Insurrection. I don't want to work with the Insurrection against you, because I've heard some pretty bad things about them."<p>

"Yeah, well so have I. Listen, if you want a treaty, you're gonna have to have the Director talk to Captain Keyes. Until then, you better get lost."  
>"Fine. I'll leave."<br>I walked out of the building and walked down the street slowly, but strangely, nobody shot at me.

I kept walking.

I arrived at an open field. Nothing harmful in sight. I walked into the open field. I took in the beauty of nature. Nature was almost rid off of the Earth at this point in time. I couldn't believe it. Everything looked so, so beautiful. I was looking everywhere, taking it all in. I then thought of something else.

"Why did nobody shoot at me?"  
>I stopped looking at the nature and started staring into space, thinking.<p>

"Maybe they had a plan."

I quickly pulled my gun out and turned around as fast as possible, aiming my assault rifle at the figure. It was Agent North Dakota.

"Oh, it's just you."

I placed my Assault Rifle right back on my back.

"I'm here to help you, since California was killed by that meteor."

"Yeah, that was pretty brutal."

"Yeah, anyways, I'm helping. Now, who've we got here? UNSC?"

"Nope. We're done with those bastards. We've got Insurrection to deal with now."

"Insurrection? Damn. I remember those guys…"

"You fought them?"  
>"Hell yeah, before I was a Freelancer! I was just a Recovery soldier at the time."<p>

I turned around to the open field.

"Beautiful, isn't it North?"

"Yeah, pretty beautiful, I gotta say. Let's hop in."

"What?"  
>"I brought a jeep. Let's go take these bastards down."<p>

North climbed into the driver seat of the Warthog. I climbed up and mounted the gunner turret of the Warthog. North drove off down the road.

"So, where we headed?"  
>"No clue."<p>

"How bout we head to whoever shoots at us?"  
>"Deal."<p>

We kept driving until something finally shot.

Something had finally shot at us. But it wasn't an Insurrectionist. Standing right in front of us were two familiar faces.

"Maine and Washington. What brings you here bastard," North said directly to Washington.

"Dealing with some Insurrectionist. Why are you here?"  
>"Same reason. Why'd you shoot?"<br>"Thought you could've been Insurrection."

"Really? So you didn't see my purple armor as we were driving down?"  
>"Purple? Oh, sorry. I call that color faggot."<br>"Look, you're the only faggot here."  
>"Guys, just be quiet. I don't want to get into your personal fight or anything, but we've got Insurrectionist to deal with," I told the two bickering freelancers.<p>

The Meta took a short glance at me. He put his Brute Shot on his back. He charged towards me.

"Oh shit."  
>The Meta hit the car as hard as possible, sending it flying into an apartment complex. I was sent inside of someone's apartment. The citizen ran into cover as I got up from the dirty floor.<p>

"Geez, someone hasn't cleaned the house yet."

Brute shots were entering through the window. I ducked to be safe from the explosive bullets. It brunt a hole right through the wall. I waited until he had to reload, and I hopped out of the window. I looked over as the Meta reloaded. Washington was holding North around the neck and he had a gun pointed at his head.

"Meta, stop," Washington ordered. "If you move any closer, we shoot."

I pulled my Evolved Magnum out of my side pouch.

"What type of magnum is that?"

"Just a basic one. Can I hold this while surrendering?"  
>"Why hold a gun? Just drop your weapons."<br>"The citizens in there are probably pretty angry and it's legal to own a gun.

"Fine."  
>I shot Washington in the head with the Magnum. He fell down to the ground. North caught his pistol mid-air and took the Meta's Brute Shot off of his back. The Meta put his fists in the air and turned towards North.<p>

"Looking for this?"

I charged over at the Meta. He turned to me and was ready to fend off my attack. North shot him with all the shots in the Brute Shot, pushing him through the wall of the next building. I charged right towards Washington and picked him up. I checked his pulse.

"Seems as though this helmet was enough protection for him. Thankfully he isn't dead yet. He's unconscious. I'll call for Freelancer Extraction to come down. You got Meta?"  
>"Nope, can't get a grip on him without him trying to kick my ass."<p>

I placed Wash back on the ground and ran into the building. North had his foot on the Meta's chest. The Meta was trying to grab his leg.

"Whoa! Easy there big guy!"

I shot the Meta with the Evolved Magnum once in the head.

"What? It didn't even make him faint?"  
>"The Meta's one tough bastard. I'll let him get up, you do whatever you need to."<br>"Alright."

North released his foot from the Meta's chest. The Meta quickly hopped up and pushed North through a wall.

"Jesus!"  
>I hit the Meta in the back of the head with my pistol. He fell over, knocked out.<p>

"And that's how you do it. You alright?"  
>"Yeah, I think I'm fine."<br>North slowly got up from the ground.  
>"Ow."<p>

"Alright, I'll call for Freelancer Extraction."  
>"No, I'm fine."<br>"For them dumbass."  
>"Oh, sorry."<br>I called Freelancer Extraction. Wash and Meta were then extracted.

"Well, now what?"  
>"Jeep's broken. I guess we walk."<br>"Same plan?"  
>"Sure."<p>

We turned the corner and walked down the next street, North limping.

Walking down the street with North, I received a transmission from the Director. I answered it to see what was up.

"Yes sir?"  
>"What did you do to Agents Washington and Maine?"<p>

"They came onto us. Wash held North by the neck, aimed a pistol to his head and Maine charged up at me and destroyed our jeep."  
>"Are you sure of this soldier?"<br>"Yes. I have North here as a witness, and his injured leg."  
>"Alright. Once you're mission is over, we'll see about these two. Once they're all fine, we're sending them back down to continue their mission. If I were you, I would avoid those two at all costs."<br>"Got it."  
>"Director out."<br>The Director hung up on me. North turned to me.

"What did he want?"  
>"He wanted more information about our little fight back there. I told him what happened."<br>"Did he believe you?"  
>"Not really. We're gonna have to talk about it after the mission."<br>"Great."

Down the road from us was a car shop. Three Warthogs lined up outside the shop. The owner was polishing one of them. We walked down to his shop. As we walked, we noticed all of the Warthogs had turrets on them. It was illegal to sell Warthogs with turrets on them, unless you were part of the military selling it to another military soldier.

"Excuse me sir, are these your Warthogs?"  
>"Why yes, they are. What can I do for you?"<br>"Well first off, it's illegal to sell these. But I'm gonna let that slide. I need to use one of these Warthogs."  
>"It's gonna cost you 4,000."<p>

"You got a card on you?" North asked me.

"No, do you?"  
>"No."<br>"We don't have any way of paying you."  
>"Well then no car."<br>"Look, we're part of Project Freelancer. We are a military enforcement, we have commanded you to give us that car."

"Yeah, we can just pay you back anyways," North added in.

"Wait, Project Freelancer?"  
>"Yes."<br>"Hold on. I've got something special for you."

"Okay."  
>The man entered the building quickly. He then exited in nearly ten seconds, holding a shotgun.<p>

"Die you son of a-"

I shot him in the head with my anniversary magnum before he could finish.

"What are you doing? We can't just shoot random citizens!"  
>"I don't give a shit. Let's see what he's got."<br>We walked over to his garage door. I broke inside his house and opened it up from the inside.

"We could use this," I said.

"Holy shit," North was amazed.

We had found ourselves a Rocket Warthog.

North hopped into the driver seat of the car, as I hopped onto the Rocket Turret. North took off like a rocket. He immediately turned to the interstate. We were driving down the interstate now, getting on a section of it that was located on a bridge. North was dodging citizens' cars like crazy. I turned my Rocket Turret around to check behind us. There were three Hornets behind us.

"Shit, North, we've got some hostiles!"

"Take em' out!"  
>The first Hornet began to shoot at our car. I locked the Rocket Turret onto the Hornet and fired my missiles. The turret was reheating. The rockets hit straight on the Hornet. It began to spin out, and it hit another one of the Hornets, sending them both crashing to the ground. The last Hornet moved up closer to the Warthog.<p>

"Nice one with those two, but I think we've still got one! It's close! Take him out!"  
>"The turret is reheating. It's taking longer than usual. He must have been working on this turret still."<br>"Well then, how are we gonna take that Hornet out?"  
>The Hornet began shooting at us.<p>

"I have an idea."  
>I ran up on top of the turret and jumped onto the side of the Hornet. I pulled out my Anniversary Magnum and sneaked over to the cockpit. I open the cockpit up quickly and shot the pilot. The Hornet was falling. I threw his body out quickly and hopped in. I applied a boost to keep my Hornet from touching the ground. I was now ahead of the Warthog.<p>

"You gonna protect me in that thing?"  
>"Might as well."<br>Up ahead the street was some traffic. Another Hornet pulled up on the side of the bridge.

"I can't hit him from all the way up here!"  
>North boosted up even faster and ramped up a car. He was sent into the air. He hopped out of the driver seat, fired the turret at the Hornet and quickly hopped back into the driver seat, landing right in front of a civilian car, still behind me.<br>"Nice!"  
>I saw something coming up in the distance. A Pelican.<p>

"I'll see if it's Freelancer."

I flew up to the Pelican to check if it was friendly.

The Pelican was not friendly.

The hostile Pelican began to shoot at my Hornet. I hopped out of my Hornet just in time before it exploded. North did another boost ramp up a car and was flying in the air, right next to me. I grabbed the Rocket Turret and spun around to land on the Warthog. I spun the turret back around and fired at the Pelican turret. The turret broke and fell right off. We were approaching the Pelican.

"What are we gonna do?"  
>"I have an idea."<br>I hopped on top of the turret and pulled out a small circular device. One hand held onto the turret. North did another car ramp boost. We were flying right next to the pelican. I placed the small device on the side of the pelican and hopped back down to my turret. Upsilon began speaking now.

"Signaling."

The Mother of Invention was now visible from the sky. Three large missiles came down from the sky, from the Mother of Invention. Each missile hit the Pelican and sent it crashing down to the ground.

"So, when'd you get that thing?"  
>"Just before this mission."<br>We landed in front of more cars. There was an exit that we could get off at approaching.

"Wanna get off here?"  
>"Sure."<p>

North turned the Warthog onto the interstate. He drove us quickly to a hotel. We hopped out of the jeep and entered the hotel.

"Why did you need to leave the city?" I asked North.

"Because, we're destroying it. The MOI should be sending a missile strike down there in a day or two."  
>"What? We can't destroy the city! That city contains what could possibly be the last bit of nature!"<br>"Do you really care about the nature that much?"  
>"Yes, I do."<p>

"Well there's nothing we can do about it now."  
>"I'll protect that place. You'll see. We can just head over to that nature piece and call for some missile-protecting dome."<br>"Whatever. You're gonna have to do it alone."  
>"What? You're not coming with me?"<br>"Nope. See ya. I'm staying here."

"Fine, I'll go alone."

I exited the building and walked towards the Warthog.

"Well, technically I found it, so."

I hopped into the driver seat of the Warthog and turned around. I headed for the bridge again.

I was driving down on the bridge. No enemies in sight.  
>"This will be easy."<br>Another Warthog pulled up next to me. I turned to face them. Wash and Meta.

"Hey Florida. We were released. Turns out we didn't even need a day to recover. You trying to ruin our mission? The one where we send the missile strike down?"  
>"No, just wanna cover up that nature piece down at the other side of the city, that's all."<br>"You know, I think Meta's still a little mad at you for what you've done to him."  
>"Tell him to get over it then. I had to do it."<p>

The Meta jumped onto my Warthog and landed on top of me. Wash drove up further ahead. I kicked Maine off of the Warthog. As he was falling, he grabbed onto the back of the Warthog. He was barely holding on, as I was speeding at a really fast pace. I drove towards Washington. My car was running out of gas.

"Shit."  
>I hopped out of the Warthog and jumped onto the back of a large truck. Meta hopped onto the back also. He started to punch me, but I blocked his hits. I gave him a nice undercut punch and he was pushed back a bit. Washington slowed his Warthog down and Meta hopped onto the turret of his Warthog. He began to shoot at me. I hopped onto the top of the truck and jumped onto another car. I kept jumping on cars but the Warthog would always catch up to me. I finally got to the point where there were no more cars to jump onto, except for one.<p>

I turned towards Washington's Warthog and hopped onto it. I shot the Meta with my Anniversary magnum twice in the head. He was unconscious and he fell backwards off of the Warthog.

"One down. One more to go."  
>I felt something clench onto my leg. I faced down. Washington was holding onto my leg. I grabbed the turret and spun it around. It threw Washington on top of the Warthog with me.<p>

"Look, can't we talk about this."  
>"Nope, I don't think so," I said.<p>

I grabbed Washington by his helmet and took it off. I threw it off onto the highway and punched Wash in the face. He fell off the side of the Warthog. I hopped into the driver seat of the Warthog and continued towards the city.

I arrived at the nature park. I parked my Warthog. I looked above me. The Mother of Invention was ready to fire. North had held off the missile strike, hadn't he? In the park were dozens of Insurrection soldiers. I looked at them. They were all aiming at me.

"You thought we would let you get away with this?"  
>"With what?"<br>"Trying to destroy this town, that's what!"  
>"Some of the Freelancers don't want this town destroyed, like me."<br>"You only want to save the nature. You don't care about the town."  
>I remembered Wash and Meta. They were trying to protect the town, the nature.<br>"Wash and Meta."  
>"What?"<br>"Agents Washington and Maine. They wanted to protect the city too, didn't they. They didn't know I was protecting the nature, did they?"

"They told you that they were going to destroy the town."  
>"I think they were lying about that."<br>"No, they knew you were going to protect this nature."  
>"Ha!"<br>"What?"  
>I hadn't actually thought that Wash and Meta were trying to protect the town, I wanted to see the Insurrectionists reaction. I had a thought, and it was true. Wash and Meta were actually Insurrectionists the whole time.<p>

"You guys were really Wash and Meta weren't you?"  
>"I was Wash. Meta was himself. He's helping us now."<p>

"And one of you was the Director contacting me about them."  
>"That would be me," another soldier said.<p>

"And you guys sent in a dropship to pick them up instead of a Freelancer dropship."  
>"Yup. It all worked out as planned."<br>"Although there's one thing. I can tell North to blow this damn place up right now."  
>"Go ahead. Do it. Blow up this beautiful nature."<br>I couldn't do it. I couldn't let the nature be destroyed. I ran up to the Insurrectionist soldier and kicked him in the gut. He was sent flying. Three Insurrectionist soldiers aimed their shotguns at me.

"Put your hands up motherfucker!"  
>I put my hands up and dropped a grenade. It rolled backwards and exploded, knocking me forward into one Insurrectionist soldier and killing two others. I grabbed the shotgun and shot the Insurrectionist in the face.<p>

"How do you like that boy?"  
>A big soldier came up to me. I got up and turned toward him. It looked like the ODST.<p>

"Who are you?"  
>"Sharkface."<p>

"Sharkface. God damn it!"  
>Sharkface aimed his flamethrower at me and fired. I rolled out to the side and ran behind him. I grabbed the back of his flamethrower and I tried to pull it out from behind him, but he was too strong. He spun me around and sent me flying into the hills. I hit the ground hard, and I laid on my back for a while. Sharkface walked up to me slowly and set his flamethrower down. He picked me up by the neck. I couldn't breathe very easily.<p>

"Agent Florida. You want to save this nature, don't you?"  
>"Yes. Upsilon…"<br>"Upsilon? Oh, that A.I. you stole from the UNSC. I remember that guy."  
>"Yes sir?"<br>"Now would be a very good time to…"  
>Sharkface took Upsilon out of my storage unit, he was holding his chip.<p>

"You're not getting any help from this little guy."  
>He threw Upsilon on the ground. I heard a snapping noise.<p>

"No…"  
>Sharkface threw me down to the ground. I was lying on my back again.<p>

"You would like me to do what?"  
>I had forgotten that Upsilon left traces of himself in my storage unit in case he was taken out of me.<p>

"I need you to do a shock blast, on, on Sharkface."  
>"I will try, although I don't think I have enough energy for that."<p>

I looked at Upsilons chip. I quickly got up and bent over it. I stared at it for a long time. I felt a single tear fall down my cheek. Upsilon was broken. Upsilon was gone.

"What are you going to do now?"  
>I was filled with rage. I got up from the ground and kicked Sharkface as hard as I could. He fell over on his back. I picked up the two pieces of Upsilon and put them in my tactical pouch. I walked over to Sharkface.<p>

"This is what you get. The usual."  
>"What?"<br>I kicked his helmet off of his face and shot him with my Anniversary Magnum. I unloaded a whole clip into his head, out of rage. I walked outside the nature and sat there thinking. I was thinking until I heard a voice.

"Come on, let's go."  
>I looked back up. North was standing in front of me.<p>

"Where are we going?"  
>"Somewhere safe. The Director isn't keeping this missile strike off any longer. I did everything I could. Nothing worked. We have to go."<br>I turned towards the nature.  
>"Alright. Let's go."<p>

I walked with North back onto the bridge.

"So, what happened? Why are you so sad?"  
>"Upsilon. He's gone. That bastard broke him in half. His internals are damaged too, if we do manage to fix him he'll go crazy."<br>"Holy shit, that's bad."  
>We walked onto the bridge. I turned around as I heard the missiles launch. I watched as the missiles hit the nature, and then continued to hit the rest of the town. I took my shotgun off of my back. I laid it in my hands gently. North placed his hand on my shoulder.<p>

"We had to do it. I'm sorry."  
>I began to have memories. I then remembered something very important.<br>"I remember. I remember now. I wanted to safe that nature, not only because it was nature, but because I remembered something important about it. You know how I don't remember anything from my childhood, right?"  
>"Yeah."<br>"I do now."

I walked towards the city a bit more.  
>"I grew up here. I grew up in this town."<br>"What?"  
>"This is where I was born. This is where I wanted to die as a child."<br>"Don't. Don't do it."  
>"I'm not doing anything. I said as a child. I don't want to die here anymore."<br>I sat there, thinking hard.

"I remember. Johnny and I used to go to that candy shop over there, every day after school. We would pay for a candy bar for each of us, but we would secretly take a bit more, you know?"  
>"Yeah."<br>"I just can't believe it's gone."  
>"Let's just go home, and forget everything."<br>"O-okay."  
>I walked down the bridge with North some more until we got to extraction point.<p>

We got aboard the Pelican at the extraction point. I was welcomed by Isabel, who hugged me as I got on.  
>"I was so worried about you, with those Insurrectionist guys and all."<br>"I'm fine, don't worry. I'm just, going through some emotional stuff right now. I think I'm gonna get some rest."  
>"Alright. Do you want to be alone?"<br>"No. You can come. I'm fine with that."  
>"Okay."<br>Everybody sat down. I stared at the burning city as we took off.  
>"What are you looking at?"<br>"The city…"  
>"Yeah, as it turns out, that's where big man here grew up."<p>

"Big man?"  
>"What? A candy bar a day, you had to be a little large."<br>"Eh, I walked it off usually. Walked wherever I went. Everybody in that city walked everywhere, unless they had to go to another city for work."  
>"You grew up there?"<br>"Yeah. I grew up there, and Upsilon died there."  
>"What are you talking about?"<br>"Upsilon was split in half by an Insurrectionist. His internals are damaged. Even if we could fix him, he'd be one crazy son of a bitch."  
>"Don't worry, we'll get him all fixed."<br>"I hope."  
>I stared at Upsilon's broken pieces. I never thought I was this connected to Upsilon.<p>

"Hang in there buddy," I whispered to the broken pieces.

The city was finally out of sight. I felt something roll down my cheek.

Another tear.

[I was going to put lyrics to a song like usual, but this song doesn't have any lyrics and it fits this tone better than any other song. Use the URL to listen to the song.]

watch?v=7mj4uoPxHYs


End file.
